Nigerian honeytrap conned IT worker out of £5,000

AN IT worker has escaped jail after a sheriff heard how he had been duped in an internet honey-trap scam into sending money collected from charity donations to fraudsters in Nigeria.

Brian Mackay, 40, of Easter Road, gave between 4,000 and 5,000 of his own money to a woman he met in an online chatroom to help her with various family crises.

After handing out his own cash, the woman then persuaded Mackay, who was depressed after recently being dumped, to go to Cash Converters in Edinburgh and process and transfer 25,635, which the online fraudster had conned out of others who thought they were giving to charity.

Sheriff Deidre MacNeill QC yesterday told Mackay: "It is obviously a serious offence. It seems you befriended the Nigerian lady on the internet and your personal circumstances made you more vulnerable."

She said compensation presented difficulties as the court heard various different parties would have to be refunded and Mackay had lost his job on Monday.

She said in his case there was an alternative to custody due to mitigating factors, including his early guilty plea, and sentenced him to 260 hours of community service.

At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute Ruth Ross-Davie told Edinburgh Sheriff Court a police investigation of the internet payments had led to Mackay.

She said: "When he was apprehended by police officers, he acknowledged he understood the process was a dishonest one and he had been involved in a transfer of money from innocent parties to the fraudulent parties in Nigeria.

"His response to the charge was 'I was very stupid, I have stopped it now and apologised, I know it was wrong'."

Mackay admitted receiving 25,635 through the Western Union Money Transfer System, and transferring the criminal property to third parties in Nigeria, whose identities are unknown – an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The offence happened between 1 May, 2008 and 31 July, 2008.

Mackay had faced a further charge which alleged he formed a fraudulent scheme to obtain money by e-mail, but his not guilty plea to this was accepted by the Crown.

Defence agent Cameron Tait told the court: "He met this lady on an internet chatroom and at the time he had been suffering from depression.

"He had a relationship of his own fall apart and was spending a lot of time on these chatrooms. Over the period of time he was persuaded to give money for various family crises.

"The position after that was she had made contact with him by e-mail and persuaded him there was a relationship and he was persuaded to go to Cash Converters and make certain money transfers. When he made the transfers he did not think it was fraudulent. He never met this woman."

The court heard Mackay was in a new relationship and was due to marry in two months. He had offered to repay the cash.