Lynette Irene Sexton: Stanthorpe grandmother’s jail sentence over money laundering scheme

A 71-year-old Southern Downs woman who was roped into an overseas fraud plot through what she believed was an online relationship, claims she has now lost her entire life savings to multiple internet scams.

A Stanthorpe grandmother has narrowly avoided time behind bars after she was roped into an international money laundering scheme through online dating, losing every cent of her own savings.

Police searched Lynette Irene Sexton’s home in July 2019 after receiving a report about credit card fraud, where they located boxes and packaging receipts for items worth about $11,000, which had been redirected from their initial destination to the Stanthorpe woman’s home.

Warwick District Court heard the now-71-year-old told officers she was in an online relationship with a man in Malaysia who had been sending the parcels to her so she could forward them overseas to him, and showed police their text and email conversations.

Crown prosecutor Bernard Berger said further investigation revealed Sexton was part of a fraudulent scheme in which a person or group would use victims’ bank card details to purchase items online, which they intercepted mid-transfer and redirected to the Stanthorpe woman’s address.

He said the scam was twofold in that money was also deposited into and transferred through Sexton’s bank account, with a total of $59,603.25 placed in her account between April 3 and June 29 that year.

“Those cash deposits were made at various different locations in Australia by different unknown people,” Mr Berger said.

“During the same period, some $29,123.79 was withdrawn from (Sexton)’s account at ATMs and Eftpos terminals in Malaysia, and another $29,604 was withdrawn at various ATMs in Malaysia on a travel card also owned by the defendant.”

Mr Berger told the court Sexton was aware to an extent that her actions were unlawful, as she told the man she believed she was in a relationship that “she could be in trouble legally”.

He read several messages between Sexton and the Malaysian man from June 2019, with Sexton describing her conduct as fraud after her bank account had been frozen due to suspicious activity.

“(Sexton) told the male, ‘I could end up in jail and I’m not wanting that to happen’,” he said.

“That paints a different colour and there’s obviously a degree of exploitation that has undergone here, but there was certainly an appreciation by the defendant that what was going on was suspect.”

Defence barrister Jessica Goldie said the grandmother cared for her husband with Alzheimer’s disease for several years until his death in 2009, and moved from Warwick to various locations afterwards searching for companionship with distant relatives or friends.

“She joined some online dating platforms and was looking for a relationship online, and that’s when she met this man who effectively scammed her into this current offending,” Ms Goldie said.

“She herself lost $80,000 of her own savings to not only this man that she thought she was in a relationship with, but also to another person who scammed her, so she is quite naive in engaging in these online relationships.

“Unfortunately that $80,000 was her entire savings. She now lives in Stanthorpe alone, lives off her pension, rents her house, and effectively has nothing to her name, which is obviously quite sad.”

Judge Nathan Jarro said Sexton’s clean criminal history and evident remorse weighed in her favour, but no amount of emotional vulnerability would excuse her behaviour.

“Your offending behaviour was reckless, it was fraudulent, and it was clearly foolish. You knew what you were doing was wrong,” he said.

Sexton pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering.

She was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, wholly suspended for 18 months.