Kristel Galvin-Samie fleeced her victims of tens of thousands of dollars by stealing their identity

A woman has gone to incredible lengths to fleece tens of thousands of dollars from her victims, donning a wig and sunglasses to avoid being caught in the act.

Kristel Galvin-Samie, 35, pleaded guilty to four charges including theft and obtaining financial advantage by deception

A bold thief has admitted fleecing tens of thousands of dollars from victims of stolen IDs by impersonating them with wigs and sunglasses when withdrawing cash from the bank.

Kristel Galvin-Samie, 35, pleaded guilty at the County Court to four charges including theft and obtaining financial advantage by deception for offending Judge Michael McInerney described as “brazen” and “ingenious”.

The former client relationship manager stole customer IDs and personal information from a computer database she had access to through her role at vehicle leasing company, FleetPlus.

With two other co-accused women, Samie used the stolen IDs to access the victims’ bank accounts or to open fraudulent new accounts in their name.

The fraudsters transposed pictures of one of the offenders onto the IDs before assuming their identities by wearing hair wigs and sunglasses and attending the bank branches in person.

“Not only was it sophisticated, it was quite brazen … to assume identities, have themselves photographed and attend banks, it’s almost a film script,” Judge McInerney said on Wednesday.

“Brazen is probably an understatement.”

The con artists would withdraw large sums of money or apply for personal loans before transferring the cash to other fraudulent accounts.

In one instance in May 2018, Samie withdrew $30,000 in cash and transferred more than $130,000 to other accounts held in fake names.

Galvin-Samie used to work at ANZ, Westpac and GE Capital.

On another occasion, a bank teller became suspicious when Samie tried to withdraw $25,000 while wearing a blonde coloured wig with dark clothing and her left hand bandaged.

The teller went out the back to talk to a manager about the licence but on her return found Samie had disappeared.

Judge McInerney noted Samie’s past employment at ANZ, Westpac and GE Capital likely enabled her to carry out the scheme.

“You need to have that background information to have the gall to take on this type of operation,” he said.

The court heard she used the stolen money to finance her serious drug and gambling addiction, with the latter costing up to $1000 per day.

Police raided Samie’s Point Cook address in August, 2018, and found a USB containing the information of 217 former FleetPlus customers.

Samie’s defence lawyer, Katrina Webster, said her client was remorseful for her conduct and had been undergoing drug rehabilitation for the past 19 months.

“Her prospects of her rehabilitation rely on her ability to stay off drugs,” Ms Webster said.

Judge McInerney will sentence Samie on May 19.