Man allowed bank account to be used for fake An Post text message scam, Cork court told

A man who allowed his Revolut account be used by a third party to deposit funds from a text message scam has pleaded guilty to making gain or causing loss by deception contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001.

Sergeant Tom Mulcahy told Kinsale District Court sitting in Bandon that the injured party in the case reported to her bank she had been the victim of a fraud in March 2024.

The court heard the woman received a text message claiming to be from An Post. She clicked on a link in the message and a short time later she received a phone call from somebody claiming to be from Permanent TSB bank, who spoke to her in relation to the fake text message.

The woman was persuaded to divulge details to the caller and subsequently was defrauded of €4,600 that was removed from her account in two separate transactions of €2,300 each. The court was told the injured party was reimbursed by her bank, who reported the incident to gardaí, who then began an investigation.

Deposited

The funds were deposited into the Revolut account of 22-year-old Emmanuel Okoye, with an address at River Village, Monkisland, Athlone, Co Roscommon. Okoye was interviewed at Galway Garda Station, where he said he had shared his Revolut details with a third party but did not know who had used the account.

Defence solicitor Myra Dinneen said Okoye had been approached by someone at the Atlantic Technological University in Galway, where he is studying software development, who asked him if he was “short of money”.

She said Okoye was offered €1,000 to allow his Revolut account to be used “for a few days” on condition that he did not look at the account for that period. She said Okoye ultimately did not receive the €1,000, and was now obliged to repay the €4,600 to the bank.

The court was told Okoye works nights in a pharmaceutical factory to fund his education and goes to college in the day.

The court was told at the time of the incident that he was working “one or two days per week” in a nursing home and was in difficult financial circumstances as he had no financial support from his parents or the State for his studies.

Ms Dinneen said: “He got nothing. He was the fool, the idiot in all of this.”

Very serious offence

Judge Joanne Carroll said it was a “very serious offence” and asked Ms Dinneen why she should not send Okoye to prison. She said Okoye was clearly an intelligent man and he knew the purpose of giving someone access to the account was criminal activity.

“At its very best, he aided and abetted others to defraud at least one individual. If the account was used for a few days, it could have been countless individuals.”

The judge said she was willing to consider asking for a probation report on Okoye before sentencing, as he was young and had no previous convictions but added: “There is no gold star for making admissions if you are caught red-handed.

“You either have a price or you don’t and this man had a price.”

The case was adjourned to March 5, 2026 to allow time for the completion of the probation report.

This article is funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme