Tomi Jinad gets suspended sentence for KBC account fraud

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

Tomi Jinad received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. He pleaded guilty to a number of sample counts of unlawfully operating a computer to make a gain or cause a loss to others. The proceedings were reported on 2 July 2020.

Jinad worked in customer services at KBC in Dublin city centre. Between 22 and 30 December 2018, he deactivated a security feature on 26 customers’ accounts that provided text-message authorisation codes for online transactions. Detective Garda James O’Meara told the court that the deactivation allowed fraudulent transactions to be carried out. Jinad passed account details to others who had not been identified.

Around 100 transactions were carried out, with €21,460 taken. KBC reimbursed all customers. Jinad told gardaí that somebody had approached him at work and told him what to do. Cathal McGreal BL, defending, said others had prevailed on Jinad to carry out the offending and told him he would get money, but that he ultimately received none.

Mr McGreal said Jinad had brought €3,500 to court and was willing to repay the rest to the bank. Judge Patricia Ryan suspended the sentence on condition that Jinad keep the peace and ordered him to pay €5,200 each year until the balance of the money stolen was repaid.