Suspended sentence for man involved in exploiting banking glitch

A man who took advantage of a banking glitch that lead to more than €25,000 being stolen from the institution over an eight week period has been given a three year suspended sentence.

Siva Kadiminisetty (36) told gardaí­that he did not use all the money taken from the bank but rather passed it on to a friend who asked him to help out in the fraud by opening false bank accounts.

He admitted that he had used some of the money to pay for college fees, flights home to India and groceries. He got cash back after using an unsigned Visa debit card at a supermarket on four occasions.

Oisin Clarke BL, defending, told Judge Martin Nolan that his client was in dire financial straits at the time when a friend approached him and said he had an easy way of making money.

Kadiminisetty, of Church Avenue, Rathmines, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to using a false passport to open a bank account on February 10th, 2009 and four charges of stealing cash at Dunnes Stores in Rathmines and Stephen’s Green on dates in July and August 2012.

Judge Nolan said that Kadiminisetty took advantage of “certain situations” and secured cash back at points of sale. He said the accused “was eventually picked up” following good work by gardaí.

‘Deception’

The judge said it was a crime of “deviousness and deception” but noted that Kadminisetty had no criminal record whatsoever, a good history of work and was unlikely to re-offend.

Judge Nolan said he felt a custodial sentence would not be appropriate in the case before he suspended a three year term in full on strict conditions.

Garda Nicola Connolly told Gráinne O’Neill BL, prosecuting, that a bank account had been opened using a false passport before a number of transactions were carried out using a debit/Visa card.

She said a number of false cheques were lodged into the bank account and the cash withdrawn before the bank could properly clear them. A total of three bank accounts had been set up and funds were transferred between these also.

Garda Connolly explained that the accounts were “gold member accounts” which meant that at the time the bank would “give the benefit of the doubt” and allow for cheques to be lodged and credited to the account before being properly cleared.

The Garda confirmed that this was basically “a technical error” or “glitch” within the banking system and it was eight weeks before it was rectified. Kadminisetty took advantage of this over the course of those eight weeks.

Kadiminisetty was ultimately tracked down by the fact that his brother’s passport had been used to open the account. He was interviewed and admitted what he had done.

He said he did it “to take money that was not his” but claimed that he was not the only one who benefited from the fraud.

Counsel said his client fully accepted he had a role but submitted that he had no money at the time to live off. He has since married and his first child was born in July this year.