Carlow resident allowed bank account to be used for laundering money

A CARLOW resident man pleaded guilty to allowing his bank account to be used to launder the proceeds of a phishing fraud that saw a woman lose €19,300 while on holidays in Canada.

Fabio de Oliveira Monteiro, 2 Pembroke Lodge, Pembroke Road, Carlow pleaded guilty to money laundering – concealing or disguising criminal proceeds – an offence that carries a maximum sentence of four years.

Carlow Circuit Court heard that Mr Monteiro (28) a Portuguese national, pleaded guilty to the charge.

Det Garda Sheehan, giving evidence under questioning from Brian O’Shea BL for the state, outlined how the injured party, a Permanent TSB account holder, received a phone call in June 2025 while on holidays in Canada from a man purporting to be a bank employee. She was told to delete her banking app from her phone, which she did, believing the caller to be genuine.

On 29 June, she became suspicious and went to her bank where she discovered that €19,300 had been removed from her account across four transactions on 26 June. There were four transactions in total, two of which went to Mr Monteiro’s account. The court heard the woman had not shared her banking details with anyone beforehand.

Following an order to examine Mr Monteiro’s Bank of Ireland account, gardaí established that €9,650 of the fraud proceeds had been lodged into his account on 26 June, some of which was subsequently transferred to his cousin’s account.

Mr Monteiro was arrested under caution on 9 December last year and questioned. During the interview, he admitted to providing his bank card and PIN to unidentified individuals in return for three small payments, which, he said, he used to help his mother, who was struggling with cancer.

“He got €400 in cash for the exchange for allowing his account to be used,” Mr O’Shea told the court.

Mr Monteiro has nine previous convictions, all for road traffic offences.

Under cross examination by defence counsel Donal Callaghan BL, Det Garda Sheehan agreed that the defendant was “at the bottom of the rung” of what the barrister described as a sophisticated operation.

“They prey upon and take advantage of people in financial extremes to effectively gain access to accounts” for the purposes of phishing scams, Mr Callaghan said, to which the detective responded: “Yes, their bank accounts are required.” The court also heard that the injured party had since been fully compensated by the financial institution and that Mr Monteiro had not come to garda attention since the offence.

Mr Callaghan said his client, who has lived in Ireland for the past 11 years, had a “good work pattern” and had since secured new employment. Referring to his client’s limited education, the barrister said Mr Monteiro “might not be the shrewdest out there” and argued that the offence amounted to recklessness rather than calculated criminality.

He submitted that Mr Monteiro “made a decision intending to obtain the outcome of a small amount of money without regards to consequences” and that the decision was “not made with cold unreasoning and dispassionate calculations but made in the spur of the moment for personal gain to help a third party.” The court heard that Mr Monteiro had brought €300 in compensation, gathered over time, which was “available to do as the court wished.” He had also submitted a letter to the court expressing remorse. “These international criminal organisations rely on people like Mr Monteiro to supply bank accounts,” Mr Callaghan said.

The hearing will be finalised in November.