Suzanne Marie Scott sentenced for $500k fraud scheme after fake online romance

A woman sucked into an online scam laundered more than half a million dollars through her bank, despite her own kids pleading with her to stop.

Suzanne Marie Scott was sentenced in Townsville District Court, March 17 2025 for money laundering more than $500k as part of an online romance scam. Picture: Facebook

Police officers, banks and even her own children pleading with her were not enough to stop a woman sucked in by an online romance scam from laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Suzanne Marie Scott has been jailed for five years after police raided her home and found receipts that depicted she laundered $587,000 through her bank accounts and transferred money either overseas or to bitcoin.

The now 60-year-old woman appeared in Townsville District Court on Monday morning, with commonwealth prosecutor Dane Marley explaining she struck up a relationship with a “fictitious fraudster” named ‘Phil James’ in 2018 she met online.

Mr Marley said over the course of two years and four months the woman conducted 49 transactions that saw $175,000 transferred from her Queensland Country Credit Union bank to either accounts or cash transfers overseas.

She was contacted by the fraud team and advised the funds were fraudulent and the account was closed, so she moved to Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ultimately repeating the same cycle of transfers before it too was closed.

The court was told she then opened an account with the National Bank of Australia where she was questioned about the transactions and she claimed the large sums of money were due to selling her son’s car.

Judge William Everson pointed out that was just one of the lies she told the bank, therefore highlighting her knowledge of the criminal aspect to her activity.

“She contacts the scammer saying, ‘I keep lying for you’ so she’s got knowledge of what she’s doing and it’s costing innocent people significant amounts of money,” His Honour said.

Mr Marley proceeded to tell the court that Scott opened another account with Bendigo Bank and deposited the money into a Coin Spot account which was used as a trading platform for crypto currency and bitcoin.

During the second block of offending, the woman conducted 26 to 31 transactions over a five and a half year period at the value of $225,000, the prosecutor said.

He explained she was sent large sums of cash in envelopes through the mail and divided them into $8000 bank transfers.

In May 2021 Scott drove to Emerald where she picked up a cash package and told someone she had asked to come with her that it was money from her father’s retirement fund and at one point said to the scammer, ‘I’m a money launderer aren’t I?”

“She also said her children didn’t talk to her for three months because they believed ‘Phil James’ the scammer, was scamming her. Even her kids told her and she kept doing it,” His Honour said.

At this point in the offending police had made contact with Scott, charged her and released her on bail and told her if she received another bank transfer she was to report it to authorities, which she neglected to do.

In the last lot of offending, while on bail, Scott conducted 81 transactions at the value of $185,000 over the course of three years.

‘She’s cog in the wheel of organised crime’ - Judge Everson

Defence barrister Darin Honchin instructed by Stevenson McNamara Lawyers submitted character reference letters on behalf of Scott’s father and son who talked of her being a great mother, and said she wanted to believe the scammer was real.

“She simply didn’t want to believe that it wasn’t true and would do anything in relation to those matters that he asked her to do,” Mr Honchin said.

“What she thought she was trying to gain was a partner, she said she was in love.”

Judge Everson acknowledged the woman didn’t personally take money off innocent people.

“She’s a cog in the wheel of organised crime but she’s not someone who has the sophistication to set it up but she had knowledge of what she was doing,” he said.

“Its incredibly stupidity, absolutely unbelievable to be frank even allowing the romance scheme.”

As he sentenced her and said she knew that the money was fraudulent, the woman interjected and said “no I did not”.

“You are obviously a vulnerable person but the extent of your wilful blindness to the origins of the money that you were fraudulently dealing with beggar’s belief,” His Honour said.

Scott pleaded guilty to dealing with money reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime of more than $100,000 and recklessly engaging in conduct that relate to property of $100,000 or more.

She was sentenced to five years jail, eligible for parole after serving 18 months.

Originally published as Suzanne Marie Scott sentenced for $500k fraud scheme after fake online romance