A Springfield Lakes man will spend the best part of the next five years behind bars for his role in a sophisticated card-skimming operation that netted an international crime syndicate in Romania more than $553,000 in cash.
Paul Owen Tovt, 38, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in the Brisbane District Court to one count of dealing in the proceeds of crime over a six-week period between February and April 2012 - just nine weeks after being released from jail on unrelated matters.
Crown Prosecutor Anna Cunningham told the court Tovt recruited vulnerable people in Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Brisbane to withdraw cash from ATMs across southeast Queensland using cards that had been loaded up with stolen money.
She said Tovt, along with a co-accused, obtained stolen Dutch bank account details and PIN numbers from the European-based crime syndicate and then scanned those details on to the magnetic strips of further stolen cards to access the cash.
"They used those people to withdraw money from ATMs using the cashed-up cards before making them send the money overseas via Western Union transfers," she said.
Read more at The Queensland Times.
