- Joined
- Mar 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,160
- Points
- 0
8 Romanians jailed for unauthorised ATM withdrawals
By Leong Wee Keat, TODAY | Posted: 15 January 2010 2345 hrs
SINGAPORE: Eight Romanians, who were members of an international crime syndicate, were jailed between six and nine years on Friday for unauthorised withdrawals at automated teller machines (ATMs).
Three members - Asandi Dirpes Alin, Valeriu Georgian Dumitru and Neagoe Marius - received heavier jail sentences of nine years each, as they were found with a magnetic card encoder which could have been used to make cloned ATM cards here.
Pleading for leniency, the trio's lawyers, Mr Subhas Anandan and Mr Sunil Sudheesan, said their clients were "pawns" recruited by the syndicate as they needed money.
They were also "mules", bringing in the card encoder and blank cards here, added the lawyers.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor David Chew argued that deterrence was needed in such cases where foreign syndicates target Singapore's financial systems.
Equipped with laptops, card encoders and mobile phones, they hid cloned cards in board games like Monopoly on the flight to Singapore. The cards were encoded with stolen ATM card data belonging to account holders in Britain.
They went to work on July 2 last year, but were arrested within days. By then, they had already withdrawn more than S$20,000.
One offender, however, remains at large.
By Leong Wee Keat, TODAY | Posted: 15 January 2010 2345 hrs
SINGAPORE: Eight Romanians, who were members of an international crime syndicate, were jailed between six and nine years on Friday for unauthorised withdrawals at automated teller machines (ATMs).
Three members - Asandi Dirpes Alin, Valeriu Georgian Dumitru and Neagoe Marius - received heavier jail sentences of nine years each, as they were found with a magnetic card encoder which could have been used to make cloned ATM cards here.
Pleading for leniency, the trio's lawyers, Mr Subhas Anandan and Mr Sunil Sudheesan, said their clients were "pawns" recruited by the syndicate as they needed money.
They were also "mules", bringing in the card encoder and blank cards here, added the lawyers.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor David Chew argued that deterrence was needed in such cases where foreign syndicates target Singapore's financial systems.
Equipped with laptops, card encoders and mobile phones, they hid cloned cards in board games like Monopoly on the flight to Singapore. The cards were encoded with stolen ATM card data belonging to account holders in Britain.
They went to work on July 2 last year, but were arrested within days. By then, they had already withdrawn more than S$20,000.
One offender, however, remains at large.
