Cunnamulla man Kerryn McKellar, 38, pleads guilty to money laundering in Toowoomba
Blinded by romance, a western Queensland man found himself caught in the middle of a brazen criminal operation laundering funds from an unsuspecting police officer.
Toowoomba
Don't miss out on the headlines from Toowoomba. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A western Queensland man who fell for an online romance scam found himself caught in the middle of a money laundering scheme after divulging his bank details to his online lover.
The court heard McKellar was flagged as a potential money mule in December 2021 shortly before a Western Australian police officer noticed her bank account was unusually low.
The officer made inquiries and discovered a fraudulent email was sent to her employer’s payroll management by a third party.
The email requested her future wages be sent to a bank account issued to McKellar.
Prosecution told the court police warned McKellar he could be inadvertently involved in a grander money laundering scheme and advised him to immediately report any suspicious account activity to police.
A week later, $4498.40 belonging to the Western Australian officer was deposited into McKellar’s account; he subsequently withdrew $400 and the remaining sum was transferred by a third party into a separate cryptocurrency account.
An additional sum of $4498.40 was again deposited and transferred to the cryptocurrency account some time later.
McKellar reported none of this to police.
In a police interview, McKellar said it was “not his fault” money was sent to his account and claimed the organisation “should not have put it in there”.
Prosecution conceded McKellar did not procure the funds nor transfer them to the cryptocurrency account himself; however was still involved in the laundering scheme.
Defence barrister John Davis told the court McKellar was taken advantage of in an online romance con.
“He was essentially a long term dupe in a much bigger scam,” Mr Davis said.
“He had been contacted by a woman who he believed was romantically interested in him.
“It wasn’t right until the end of their interaction that they put pressure on him to give over his bank details – that all occurred within the last couple of months prior to the police getting involved
Mr Davis said McKellar had never met or spoken to his supposed love interest in person but gave over his bank details nonetheless.
He added, at the time of the offending, McKellar suffered with severe alcoholism and a dangerous gambling addiction.
“Since the age of 18 he has been a heavy binge drinker and categorised as an alcoholic,” Mr Davis said.
“It appears he had an online gambling problem around the same time – he was in the throes of, it seems, two very severe addictions at the time of this offending.
“It’s easy to sit here in the cold light of day and say ‘it’s obvious that’s a scam’, it’s a very different thing for somebody in the throes of addiction.
Mr Davis said McKellar withdrew the $400 sum, knowing it did not belong to him, in a moment of weakness.
“His cycle has been to get his Centrelink payment, drink until he runs out of money, sober up for a while, then drink again,” he said.
“(He claims) that essentially it was an off week for Centrelink, that he had run out of money and he had been without alcohol for a couple of days.
“He saw the money come in, and he saw that as his opportunity to ‘fix’ the problem that he had in front of him.
“He took the $400 out and instructs that he drank his way through that on the same day.”
Judge Craig Chowdhury told McKellar to “give the grog away” and make healthier choices.
“This is how organised crime manages to raise money,” Mr Chowdhury said.
“They get a lonely person like you, pretend to be a woman who is interested in you, and you get led down the garden path and told to hand over your bank details.
“At the same time, they are sending false emails to banks and organisations to change the bank accounts of innocent people.
“It is a major problem, millions of dollars have been spent by police and by banks and other financial institutions to stop this scam.
“But the bottom line is you could have stopped this and said the payment wasn’t yours when it went into your account.”
McKellar was given a $100 good behaviour bond, operational for 12 months.
No restitution was sought as the officer was reimbursed outside of court proceedings.
More Coverage
Originally published as Cunnamulla man Kerryn McKellar, 38, pleads guilty to money laundering in Toowoomba
Man’s bid to bring $25k ‘cuddle bed’ to Toowoomba hospital
Bruce McGowan was able to say goodbye to his wife Belinda the right way, and he wants to make possible in Toowoomba through the delivery of a $25,000 bed to a city hospital. How you can help:
Watch: Police seize massive meth stash after highway robbery
A man is alleged to have crashed into a semi-trailer on the Warrego Highway, before threatening a couple who came to his aide with a gun and stealing their car. SEE THE VIDEO