Castlederg victim targeted in sophisticated fraud scheme, court hears

A COURIER for an organised crime gang believed to have scammed a Castlederg man out of £90,000 has been arrested in a PSNI sting during an arranged ‘pick-up’ of cash from the victim, a court has heard.

Danylo Kifa (20), of Devon Road in London, is charged with possessing and transferring criminal property as well as assisting in fraud by collecting £15,000 cash.

A detective constable told Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday that the charges could be connected.

She explained on, September 2, staff from the Ulster Bank in Strabane made police aware of concerns for a customer from the Castlederg area who had been making unusual cash withdrawals.

It transpired he had fallen victim to a “romance scam” in April. Then, around two months ago, he was contacted by a Mr Jordan who claimed to work for a legal firm in Turkey which was in a position to recoup the loss should he avail of their services.

The injured party agreed and was appointed a caseworker named ‘Violetta’. She maintained contact and her messages became “personal and romantic in nature”.

Last month, she told the injured party that in order to start working on his case the company required £10,000, which he agreed and a courier collected it from his home.

Violetta said a further £30,000 was needed and when the injured party said he couldn’t manage this, she suggested £15,000 which he agreed.

It was while withdrawing these funds, bank staff alerted police.

A sting was set up whereby the injured party continued speaking with Violetta who advised, as before, a courier would collect the funds from his home.

decoy

Shortly after 5pm on September 13, Kifa collected a package which he believed contained cash, but was in fact a decoy.

Upon leaving the property, he was intercepted by police and arrested.

During interview he described himself as a Ukrainian national with residency in London and gave a full account of his courier work.

While he didn’t believe this to be scam-related, he suspected it may have been to avoid tax.

Kifa said he was contacted by a friend in Ukraine who offered him a job working for a company called ‘Titan’ which specialised in cryptocurrency conversions.

His job was to collect cash from clients in the UK and deliver it to drop-off points.

The detective added, “The defendant advised all Titan employees are Russian-speaking Ukrainians. He would be told of work through the Telegram app including pick-up addresses. Once the package was collected he would be provided with further information on the drop-off point. He claimed to have no knowledge of a scam and believed the injured party was a client who requested the cash to be picked up to be converted into cryptocurrency.”

codewords

He stated codewords changed frequently and are usually Russian, however the one in use when arrested was ‘Violetta’ – the same name as the woman claiming to work for the legal firm.

The detective confirmed Kifa was cooperative throughout interview and assisted in translating messages, but objected to bail as, “We believe this activity relates to a larger crime gang who may get him out of the country.”

The defence meanwhile insisted Kifa knew nothing of the ‘romance scam’ and simply believed he was a courier collecting money to be exchanged for cryptocurrency, for which he received a fee.

“He had no knowledge of any criminal behaviour,” said the defence

But refusing bail, District Judge Alana McSorley remarked, “This was a well-executed police interception. This appears to be a larger criminal activity which sounds like a sophisticated network of deception. I think the defendant was well-schooled in his responses to police.”

Kifa will appear again by videolink at Strabane Magistrates Court on October 14.