A HOSPITAL worker allowed his bank account to be used to launder cash stolen from vulnerable elderly people, including in Worcestershire.

Barreto (Osvaldo) Da Costa admitted money laundering, allowing £7,800 stolen in a courier fraud to go through his bank account. The 39-year-old appeared at Worcester Crown Court today for links to a larger scam in which conmen posed as police officers investigating fraud to steal from vulnerable people, some in their 80s. The cash transferred into Da Costa's account in 2016 was stolen from two elderly victims, one from Pershore.

The money was then transferred into another account and emptied. The defendant was arrested at the airport on his way to Portugal after he bought a one way ticket. West Mercia Police declined an application for a custody photo of the defendant because he received a custodial sentence of under a year in length.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright had already jailed several of the gang, including Muhamed Talukdar and Syam Hussain, both put behind bars for eight months for money laundering. However, Judge Cartwright's sentences were quashed on appeal in July 2019. The Court of Appeal's ruling meant both men walked free, a factor the judge was mindful of when sentencing Da Costa who, like them, was used to launder the cash from the fraud. The judge said: "The fraud underlying this money laundering was of the worst kind imaginable.”

Fraudsters would ring their victims claiming to be police officers from a fraud investigation team, reassuring them by telling them to ring 101 or 999 to confirm their false claims. The fraudsters, however, remained on the line, telling their victims they had been put through to Scotland Yard, even posing as police receptionists to earn the ‘complete confidence and trust’ of their victims. They were told that fraudsters in London had copies of their bank cards to lure victims into transferring money into what they were told was a safe account. Victims were even threatened with arrest themselves if they ‘obstructed the police investigation’ and encouraged to make false statements to their banks. In other instances people were asked to hand over the cash directly to a courier who collected it from them. Judge Cartwright said of the case: “Fraud does not get more serious than this.”

The judge noted that up until then Da Costa had led a blameless life and had no previous convictions, describing him as being of ‘previous positive good character.’ Da Costa of Fiveacre Close, Thornton Heath, Surrey who appeared over videolink from HMP Hewell was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to complete 90 hours of unpaid work. He was ordered to pay £750 costs. He apologised to the victims from prison where he has been remanded for the last three weeks. Despite imposing a suspended sentence, the judge said: “I still hold the same view I did when I dealt with Messrs Talukdar and Hussain - the need for a deterrent sentence is a powerful consideration in cases such as this. The reason for that is that it’s all too easy for people looking to make some easy money like you to provide themselves and their bank account for these dishonestly obtained funds. Without you and people like you playing your role, the whole fraud simply could not take place. You are an essential component of that.”

However, the judge said it would not be right to impose an immediate term of imprisonment on Da Costa given the judgement from the Court of Appeal on Talukdar and Hussain. The judge said the trial involved a ‘a huge amount of taxpayers’ money’. In ordering Da Costa to pay costs, he said: “You were going to get the flight to Portugal. When you were arrested plainly you had enough money to pay for an airline ticket.”