A Sri Lankan student and an Indian shop worker have been jailed after they helped launder almost £200,000 stolen from Exeter Chief’s sponsor South West Communications in the United Kingdom.
Adeesh Pathirana and Adaikalam Swaminathan allowed the fraudsters behind the Hustle style scheme to use their accounts to disguise where the money went.
They were just two of a number of people who worked together to defraud the Sowton based company out of £784,551.15 in a scam in which internet bank accounts were hacked into and looted.
A conman posed as a member of the Lloyds Bank fraud investigation team and persuaded staff at the telecommunications firm to reveal crucial log-in details by telling they were investigating an attempt to hack into the accounts.
In reality, that was exactly what they did and as soon as they got the information they took the money in eight tranches of between £90,000 and £100,000.
Pathirana and Swaminathan set up accounts into which the stolen money was sent electronically before being moved out again, probably to mysterious businesses in Singapore.
Swaminathan was an Indian from Tamil Nadu who had been granted asylum in Britain and was working at a greengrocer while Watte was a business studies student from Sri Lanka who overstayed his visa and will be deported as soon as he finishes his sentence.
Both men claimed they had also been the victims of identity fraud and knew nothing about the bank accounts set up in their names but they were found guilty when a jury at Exeter Crown Court rejected their stories.
South West Communications are one of Devon’s most prominent businesses and are the main sponsor of the Exeter Chiefs, rugby team, which is run by their boss Tony Rowe.
The bank is understood to have refunded the money they lost.
Adeesh Pathirana, aged 27, of Dorchester Way, Harrow, and Adaikalam Swaminathan, aged 50, of Park Avenue, Southall, both denied being involved in money laundering but were convicted.
They were both jailed for 22 months by Judge Geoffrey Mercer, QC, who told them:”I don’t know what the full truth of this case is. I certainly did not hear it from your evidence.
“You both allowed bank accounts in your names to be used for laundering criminal property. In both cases the amount was just under £100,000.
“You would only have done it for some financial reward but to assess how big that was to be is guesswork. I accept you were only going to receive very modest rewards.
“I sentence you on the basis that you played a relatively minor part in a substantial fraud which was engineered and controlled by others.” -Agencies
Source: Exeter Express and Echo
