A court has heard a Sydney pensioner allegedly participated in a scam to convince a 93-year-old woman with dementia to hand over her bank card to fraudsters who drained it of thousands of dollars.
On Thursday, a magistrate at Manly Local Court heard Seu Fong Au, 63, was allegedly involved in the scam which saw the woman tricked into handing over her card by a person posing as an employee from her bank.
According to a police fact sheet previously tendered to the court, police stated the older woman had been repeatedly contacted by a man posing as a NAB bank manager.
During a series of phone calls, the woman was allegedly told that money needed to be withdrawn from her account to “assist in fraud investigations”, the court heard. She then allegedly handed over her card to a person on February 14, 2023.
The police fact sheet stated $1,000 was withdrawn from the woman’s account via an ATM at Parramatta on February 16. Two more withdrawals totalling $3,000 were made at Parramatta using her card on the following day.
On February 20, the woman was again allegedly contacted by a person who claimed he was a bank manager who told her that a person would go to her home later that day to pick up another bank card and swap it for another NAB card.
Mr Au has pleaded guilty to one count of possessing identification information to commit an indictable offence.
The court had previously been told police had been making further inquiries into possible alleged accomplices.
Mr Au’s Legal Aid lawyer confirmed that his client will plead not guilty to two counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception. The solicitor said representations to police in relation to these charges were unsuccessful and would now be defended in court.
Magistrate Margaret McGlynn adjourned the matters for hearing in Manly Local Court on April 8, 2024.
