Elderly people were among the victims of a bank fraud that saw a Kialla man receive more than $24,000 stolen from customers.
Montather Al Mousawi, 23, of Kialla pleaded guilty at Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to dealing with proceeds of crime on seven occasions.
The court heard Al Mousawi’s acquaintance, a National Australia Bank employee, during three months deposited $24,415.20 stolen from customers into Al Mousawi’s bank account and another $5000 to a third man.
The NAB employee set up a bank account for Al Mousawi in September 2020.
Prosecutor Boote told the court the first unauthorised transaction by the NAB employee was on December 7, 2020, when he was working at the NAB Kyabram branch.
He withdrew $300 from the account of a customer who wasn’t at the bank that day and deposited it into Al Mousawi’s account.
Six customers had money stolen from their account while the NAB employee was working at the Kyabram branch — the worst hit being a 95-year-old man.
On three occasions the employee withdrew money from the man’s account, totalling $14,500, and of this, nearly $10,000 was deposited into Al Mousawi’s bank account.
The single largest withdrawal by the employee was $7000 from an 84-year-old woman’s account while she was at the Shepparton NAB branch – $2000 of this was deposited into Al Mousawi’s account.
On May 18, 2021, Al Mousawi was arrested in Melbourne and tried to hand a wad of $2050 in cash to someone he was with.
In total, the NAB employee allegedly stole $101,316.20 from customers.
Defence lawyer Theo Magazis told the court Al Mousawi had lapsed into substance abuse in 2020 and had served eight months’ imprisonment, with a two-year community corrections order to begin on his release for previous matters.
Mr Magazis said Al Mousawi was not the organiser of the crime but his account was used for the benefit of two co-accused.
He said bank statements showed there were instances where cash was withdrawn following money being transferred into Al Mousawi’s account – he said this was on the directions of the co-accused who he would pay, receiving small commission himself.
Therefore, he said Al Mousawi didn’t keep most of the $24,415.20 transferred into his account.
Magistrate Ian Watkins said it was clear to him that Al Mousawi wasn’t the main instigator but was part of a larger enterprise.
But he said the offending of the co-accused would not have been successful if a person such as Al Mousawi hadn’t made his account available.
Magistrate Watkins imposed a community corrections order for two years, to run at the same time as the one he’d previously been sentenced with, requiring 140 hours of community work.
He also ordered him to pay back $24,415.20 to NAB.