This article is from page 8 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
A ROMANIAN man and woman who admitted their role in an ATM bank skimming scam that ripped off several Bank of Ireland customers, have been ordered to leave Ireland.
Last February, Pavel Cirpaci (24) and Gabriela Lupu (20) were in- volved in what was described as an elaborate scam. It started by damag- ing an ATM machine at SkyCourt, Shannon, before access was gained to customers’ accounts, via a pass machine in Killarney.
Cirpaci, of Carrig Court, Fortunes- town Lane, Tallaght, and Lupu, of Triogue Manor, Portlaoise, admitted damaging the machine, to the value of €300, and possession of a Sony Ericsson mobile phone, with intent to use it in connection with a theft.
At Ennis Circuit Court, they also pleaded guilty to unlawfully with- drawing money, totaling <€4,860, from nine Bank of Ireland accounts, in Killarney, on February 11 last. The two were arrested the following day and were later charged. Cirpaci also admitted escaping from custody at Shannon Garda Sta- tion, on February 12. Sergeant Seamus Mulligan told the court that at 4.30am on February 12, gardai were alerted to two people behaving suspiciously at the ATM machine at the Bank of Ireland in Shannon. According to witnesses, they were “coming and going” for the previous hour or so. The ATM machine had been dam- aged and the front panel was slightly loose on the machine. Further exam- ination showed it had been taken off and attempts made to replace it. ‘There was other damage. A small hole had been drilled behind the face of the machine and a mobile phone was inserted. The camera from the phone was looking down at the key- pay and was recording from the ma- chine. If someone put in their PIN, it would be recorded on the mobile phone,” he said. The phone was bought by the de- fendants at the Crescent shopping centre in Limerick, on January 31. “They specifically looked for longer memory time so it could record PIN numbers for six to eight hours. They probably would have returned the following night and have PIN num- bers from the whole day. “At stage two, the front was fitted on the machine, so when someone puts an ATM card into the machine, it would record details from the strip of the ATM card and reproduce someone’s ATM card, without them knowing, and access their bank ac- counts,” said Sgt Mulligan. They initially told gardai they were living locally, but this proved to be false. They were searched at Shannon Garda Station, where two Dunnes Stores gift cards. were found. “On each of the cards, there was a little white sticker on the front, with a four-digit PIN number on them. On the back of one card, there was a se- ries of numbers. That was a bank sort code and bank account number of an injured party and the number on the white sticker was her PIN number. Several withdrawals had been made from her account,’ he said. €4.780 had been withdrawn from that particular Ennis woman’s ac- count, but of that, there was just one charge before the court, relating to a €700 withdrawal in Killarney. Neither of the accused co-operated and Cirpaci initially produced ident- fication for another man. Cirpaci, a father-of-two, has lived in Ireland for at least six years and has 39 previous convictions. 10 of those were for theft and were appealed at Mullingar Circuit Court, which ruled that the sentence would be suspended if he agreed to leave the jurisdiction. His co-accused, Lupu, did not have any previous convictions. Asked was any of the money recov- ered, the garda said that €4,500 was recovered on the persons that night, while €4,950 was recovered in a subsequent search. Cirpaci’s barrister Michael Fitzgib- bon said his client didn’t co-operate as he was “fearful for the safety of his wife and children”. Sgt Mulligan replied, “It hardly ne- gates the fact he undertook to take part in those crimes. I have to think of the injured parties who had money taken from their accounts.” Mr Fitzgibbon said his client would undertake to leave Ireland forever. Sgt Mulligan said he had no prob- lem seeing him leave the country if there was a lengthy sentence waiting for him if he returned. Mr Fitzgibbon said that while the figure €190,000 had been men- tioned, the charges before the court, referred to only a fraction of this. Lupu’s barrister Michael Hourigan said the guilty pleas saved the State the trouble of having to give evidence in court. He said his client would also undertake to leave Ireland. Sgt Mulligan replied, “The inves- tigation was more complicated than the evidence we'd have to give. We had a number of people working on this full-time over the past three to four months. It was a significant in- vestigation. I think the hard work is done at this stage.” Judge Rory McCabe said it was a well-executed operation. “This has all the hallmarks of a well-planned operation. It doesn’t seem to be opportunistic in any way. I’m suspending the sentences on the undertaking that they leave the juris- diction and never to return,” he said. He imposed an 18-month term on Cirpaci and a six month sentence on Lupu, suspended for 10 years, on con- dition that they leave the country. Counsel for the State, Stephen Coughlan BL, said Cirpaci is due to be released from custody on July 16 and on that date the State will pay for his removal from the jurisdiction. Lupu had sufficient funds to arrange for her own departure forthwith.