Agata Pracz pleads guilty to €8,990 Dublin Airport fraud

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Agata Pracz, 39, from Swords, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to dishonestly inducing Yumi Takekoshi to hand over €8,990. The offence occurred at Dublin Airport on 15 July 2014. The proceedings were reported on 26 May 2016.

Garda Enda Ledwith told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Yumi Takekoshi, 58, from Tokyo, was contacted through LinkedIn by a woman claiming to be a “two-star US general”. The report said she was offered access to a container holding $10.5 million (€6.8 million) at a Dublin bonded warehouse for €8,990.

Yumi Takekoshi flew to Dublin on 15 July 2014 and met a woman claiming to be UN diplomat Sandra Daly. Garda Enda Ledwith identified that woman as Agata Pracz. The court heard she took the money in an airport bar and promised to call with container details. Yumi Takekoshi became suspicious and went to the Japanese embassy, which contacted gardaí.

Agata Pracz was arrested on the M1 motorway days later after gardaí recognised her car from airport CCTV. Garda Enda Ledwith said she claimed a man named James, whom she met in a pub, organised the deal and she was only the “cash collector”. She said financial difficulties led her to become involved.

Garda Enda Ledwith said a search recovered just over €4,000 and a laptop. He said Agata Pracz claimed she could not contact James and spent the other half of the money paying debts. Garda experts could not access the heavily encrypted laptop; she told gardaí she could not remember its password.

The court heard she had no Irish convictions but three fraud-related convictions in Poland. Garda Enda Ledwith described her involvement as “low level” and said she made no admissions about internet interactions with Yumi Takekoshi.

Judge Patrick McCartan questioned her account of joining the scam after meeting a stranger in a pub, saying similar frauds were often sophisticated and required careful planning. He adjourned sentencing to 2 June 2016.