Lydia Fahnbulleh sentenced for money laundering tens of thousands of dollars

An Elizabeth Grove woman was lucky to escape jail time for her role in a sophisticated scam despite claiming she was also “a victim” of the rort masterminded by a Nigerian trickster.

A vulnerable Elizabeth Grove woman was “easy prey” for a ”scrupulous mastermind” who made her his patsy, leaving her to face the wrath of the courts.

Lydia Fahnbulleh, 37 of Elizabeth Grove, played a role in sophisticated Facebook and email scams which swindled two South Australian men out of a combined $48,000.

But the Elizabeth Magistrates Court heard Fahnbulleh was little more than a conduit who was targeted due to her isolation and level of education stemming from her “tragic upbringing” in a refugee camp in Ghana.

Magistrate Benjamin Sale described Fahnbulleh as “easy prey” to a Nigerian man her counsel told the court was the “mastermind” behind the operation.

“You have been very isolated and you are a vulnerable person in our community,” he said.

Elizabeth Grove woman Lydia Fahnbulleh has pleaded guilty to money laundering as part of a scam. Picture: Facebook

“Your lack of ties here … have made you, in my view, easy prey for people like (the Nigerian mastermind).”

Though Mr Sale said the offending was serious and Fahnbulleh needed to be sanctioned for “offering a degree of protection to the mastermind”.

The court was previously told she had been roped into a scam by the Nigerian man, who Fahnbulleh was living with and who convinced her to use her bank account to receive money from the scam.

Though the court heard Fahnbulleh knew the activity was “not good” and “unlawful” and that she benefited from the “windfall” of tens of thousands of dollars being transferred into her bank account.

That benefit, the court heard, extended to Fahnbulleh spending some of the money on overseas travel.

She had pleaded guilty in June to money laundering over her part in the scams between October 2018 and December 2019.

David Nyamirandu, for Fahnbulleh, previously told the court Fahnbulleh was, in fact, a “as much a victim” of the scam herself as a man who had $21,000 drained from his bank account during the email hack.

“She’s an innocent player in somebody else’s crime,” he said.

Mr Sale sentenced Fahnbulleh to a term of imprisonment of seven months and 27 days, wholly suspended, subject to a good behaviour bond.