Mitica Agigeanu, 39, of St Peters Road, Great Yarmouth, appeared in court on Wednesday (8 June 2022) and pleaded guilty to two counts of entering into or being involved in the acquisition/retention, use or control of criminal property.
He was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay £4798 in compensation to the two victims.
The court heard how Agigeanu’s bank account information was given to two victims by a bogus caller claiming to be from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and The Royal Courts of Justice on 3 September 2020.
The caller stated that they owed money due to a tax error and that failure to pay would result in arrest and a £75,000 fine.
The victims, a 37-year-old man and a 45-year-old man, paid £2906 and £1892 into Agigeanu’s “HMRC” bank account, believing the phone calls were genuine.
The court heard how Agigeanu’s bank account was active until 19 April 2019 but then went dormant until 31 August 2020. It was then used from August 31, 2020 to September 5, 2020. Transactions will be suspended again after September 5, 2020.
Agigeanu may not have benefited financially from these scams, but he was happy to hand over the details of a bank account he no longer used, no doubt in exchange for money, for someone else to use to trick people out of thousands of pounds,” said PC David Moran, who worked on the investigation.
It is appropriate that he be held accountable for his role in this crime, and I hope it provides some reassurance that we take this type of fraud very seriously and will act, investigate, and prosecute anyone involved in stealing money from others.
