A SINGLETON Heights woman, 71, was tricked into handing over her savings to a telephone scammer who was a cog in a $1.2 million fraud and money laundering syndicate.
The woman fell victim to the scam in July last year, depositing $7550 into a "mule" bank account that had been opened fraudulently by scammers.
From there, 27-year-old Lakemba man Yugen Dharan, a Malaysian national in Australia on a student visa, was given the bank card for the mule account and, at the request of those higher up than him in the syndicate, withdrew cash and purchased gift cards that were then passed along to a syndicate member.
That syndicate member opened a betting account using a stolen identity and he gambled and lost the money stolen from the woman in Singleton Heights and about $100,000 more taken from other victims.
However, about $24,000 that was leftover was sent from the syndicate member to Dharan, who then transferred it into other accounts.
Dharan was arrested in February by detectives investigating the massive fraud and money laundering syndicate and made full admissions to his role in laundering the money stolen from the woman at Singleton Heights.
He appeared in Singleton Local Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime. The matter was sent to Bankstown Local Court next month when he will be sentenced.
As part of the investigation, detectives revealed on Thursday that they had arrested a Sydney woman, 36, who they say used false and stolen identities to launder $1.2 million, obtained through telephone scams, into gift cards, gambling accounts and other bank accounts.
She was later charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime greater than $100,000 and will appear in court in Sydney next month.
Strike Force Atal investigators say there are a number of scams in which victims are tricked into either allowing scammers direct access to their accounts or are tricked into depositing money into third party accounts which are being controlled by scammers.
"Australian bank accounts have security features which prevent money being transferred directly overseas," police say. "As such scammers will use third party "mule" accounts to receive stolen funds. "Those funds are then withdrawn and converted into the preferred form."
Investigations under Strike Force Artal are ongoing.
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