A young man has been handed a hefty fine after defaulting on making a payment to the court poor box.
Samuel Olohun (20) with an address at 6 Shandon Court, Upper Yellow Road, Waterford, had been invited to make a payment of €500 to the court poor box earlier this year to avoid a conviction for money laundering, contrary to Section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act.
The case was initially heard in April of this year before Judge John Cheatle, who indicated that if the payment was made before 22 September 2026, the accused could avoid a conviction under Section 1 (1) of the Probation Act.
However, the defendant failed to appear before a sitting of Waterford District Court before Judge Kevin Staunton on the same date last month for receipt of the payment to be confirmed.
The court previously heard that on 5 November 2024, Gardaí received a report from someone who had fallen victim to a text scam that claimed to be from Amazon. The injured party had authorised a payment of €1,500 out of their account, and contacted Gardaí when they discovered that a total of €8,800 had been taken out without their consent.
Sgt Hickey said that after Gardaí investigated the matter, they discovered that the funds had entered the accused’s bank account. He added that although a freeze was placed on the account to recover some of the funds, the bank remained at a loss of €3,600 from the incident.
It was noted in that court sitting that the accused has no previous convictions.
In court last week, the accused was represented by solicitor Hilary Delahunty, who said that his client was not present, and he did not have receipt of the €500 poor box donation. Mr Delahunty said that Judge Cheatle had previously directed for a fine of €3000 to be imposed on the accused if he failed to make the payment.
Judge Staunton convicted the accused of money laundering and handed him a €3000 fine, indicating that he has 12 months to pay it.
Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme Robyn Power
