Doncaster man David Lumb, 80, pleads guilty to funnelling $140,000 from romance scams for online ‘friend’
An 80-year-old Doncaster man claims he was helping an overseas friend after allowing romance scam proceeds worth more than $140,000 to flow through his bank accounts.
An elderly love rat caught up in a romance scam involving fictitious characters helped funnel more than $140,000 from three victims into his bank accounts, a court has heard.
David Douglas Lumb, 80, pleaded guilty to three charges of negligently dealing with the proceeds of crime in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Three victims, who each believed they were in an online relationship with people who were fictitious characters, sent more than $140,000 to Lumb’s bank accounts between April and November in 2021.
A 79-year-old man believed he was dating a woman he met on Skype, named Jane Terry.
Terry convinced the man to invest in a fictitious business and sent fake contracts from lawyers.
The victim transferred more than $59,000 to “Jane” before he became suspicious of the woman and reported the scam to police.
Investigators discovered “Jane” was not real and traced the bank account the money was sent to back to Lumb.
Police also discovered images of “Jane” on Lumb’s phone.
During his police interview, Lumb claimed he let an overseas friend use his bank account to transfer money and denied any involvement in the scam.
Another man — who believed he was dating a young woman named “Kim” — sent more than
$57,000 to Lumb’s bank account after she asked for money to get a package that was stuck overseas and for a new iPhone.
A woman sent thousands more to Lumb’s bank account, believing she was sending the money to a US Army soldier she was dating.
A builder was sent a fake invoice for $36,300 after the email of one of his suppliers was hacked.
After he transferred the money to Lumb’s bank account he realised he had been scammed.
When Lumb was arrested, he again told police he was approached by a woman he met on the internet to transfer some money and did not realise it was illegal.
“At the end of the day I saw it as doing a friend a favour,” he said.
Lumb’s lawyer Rachel Cashmore asked the court to not sentence the 80-year-old to a term of imprisonment.
“There is no evidence he was a perpetrator of any scams,” she said.
Ms Cashmore said Lumb had been a victim of similar romance cons and said he was a “middleman” with “no awareness” of the scams he was involved in.
Magistrate Caroline Boult said she had “difficulty accepting” Lumb was a victim due to his “relevant prior history” of deception offences.
Ms Boult will sentence Lumb on January 14.
