Cash mule Innocent proven guilty
A man named Innocent who became a 'cash mule' for a gang of internet fraudsters who stole tens of thousands of pounds from their victim's bank account has been jailed for eight months.
The gang coerced Innocent Taruvinga from Walsall into letting them use his bank account to plunder another man's account of £40,000.
Miss Fiona Cortese, prosecuting at Stafford Crown Court on Wednesday, said the victim Philip Marsden was tricked by a phoney website mimicking his own bank's online service.
The fraudsters also got hold of his mobile phone details to set up a cloned SIM card.
Using the cloned phone in the London area, eight withdrawals of £5,000 each were taken from Mr Marsden's account and put into Taruvinga's bank account.
Miss Cortese said a total of £33,325 was subsequently withdrawn from the defendant's account.
She said Mr Marsden discovered money was missing from his account after his mobile phone suddenly stopped working.
He called his mobile number from his home phone and a man answered.
Vodafone discovered a cloned SIM was being used in London and the phone had been used for the illicit withdrawals.
Mr Marsden has since been compensated in full by his bank.
Police arrested 26-year-old Taruvinga at Gatwick airport on December 5.
After being arrested, Taruvinga told police his ex-partner's brother had asked to use his bank account for a car deal.
He said he only gave permission for once-only use and when he refused to withdraw the large amounts paid in to it, his family was threatened.
Taruvinga, of Carl Street, Leamore, in Walsall, admitted a charge of transferring criminal property. Mr Andrew Baker, mitigating, said Taruvinga was 'a bottom-end stooge' in the bank swindle.
No physical threats were made to him, but he was intimidated, the court heard.
There was no evidence linking him to the phoney website plot or the use of the cloned SIM card.
Sentencing Taruvinga to eight months in prison, Judge John Wait told him: "You have played a part in extracting the proceeds from a very sophisticated banking fraud which involved the use of a bogus website.
"Substantial sums were transferred from Mr Marsden's account to yours.
"I don't really know from the crown what was really going on. What I do have is an account from you as a cash mule.
"I will accept you have been directed by more sophisticated criminals, but you did enter in to this fraud voluntarily."