Laura Louise Mitchell jailed for money laundering in cryptocurrency scheme

The identity of a Qld aged care worker who helped email scammers steal more than $1.25 million and turn it into cryptocurrency can be revealed along with how they did it.

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A Queensland aged care worker has been jailed for money laundering, helping email scammers steal more than $1.25 million and turn it into cryptocurrency.

The Alton Downs woman, who acted as a “money mule”, was not deterred from her offending after banks suspended her accounts due to suspicious activity, Rockhampton District Court heard.

Laura Louise Mitchell, 49, had no criminal history until she fronted court for her role in the money laundering scheme which she participated in for nine months between November 10, 2021 to August 11, 2022.

Commonwealth prosecutor Vanessa Lyons said Mitchell met a stranger on the WhatsApp platform and took on the role until her home was searched by police.

“She received and subsequently dealt with a total of $1,261,416.98 that was paid by victims of various business email compromise frauds into bank accounts in Mitchell’s name,” she said.

Ms Lyons said Mitchell, who pocketed at least $31,478.98 of that money, then transferred the rest into “cryptocurrency accounts that were set up in her name that were then used to transfer money into Bitcoin and into the possession of other unknown people”.

She said about $750,000 was unable to be recovered and there were fraud stops placed by various banks on $525,631.63.

“The way the scheme worked was that an unknown person, who wasn’t (Mitchell), submitted various business email compromised frauds where emails containing legitimate bank account details were substituted by emails containing (Mitchell’s) bank account details,” Ms Lyons said.

“The victims of the fraud paid large sums of money into the bank accounts held by (Mitchell).”

She said Mitchell was then instructed by someone called Johnny Evans via WhatsApp on where to transfer the funds – four different cryptocurrency trading accounts that she had in her name on four different platforms.

The money she took for herself was withdrawn via ATM or used with other purchasing platforms such as Afterpay.

“The offending continued despite multiple warnings from the defendant’s financial institutions that she might be part of a scam,” Ms Lyons said.

Mitchell’s accounts with Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank were ultimately locked so she opened a new account with ANZ which also ended up locked.

Ms Lyons said Mitchell also asked Evans about the tax implications of the scheme and raised concerns about coming to the attention of the Australian Taxation Office.

Defence barrister Maree Willey said her client was not the instigator or mastermind of the scam.

She said Mitchell, a former Yeppoon High School student, mentioned some financial difficulties to the Johnny Evans user, and they offered to help.

Ms Willey said her client, who had been married for 26 years and had two adult children, was supported in court by friends.

Judge Jeff Clarke said Mitchell, who worked at a residential aged care facility in North Rockhampton for the past 11 years, made “self-serving” admissions to police and “downplayed” her “persistent and protracted” criminality.

“It is of considerable concern (Mitchell) seemed to be expressing some interest in getting money, if not delight,” he said.

She pleaded guilty to three counts of dealing in proceeds of an indictable crime worth $100,000 or more, two counts of dealing with money or property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime worth $100,000 or more and one of dealing with proceeds of indictable crime worth $10,000 or more.

Judge Clarke sentenced Mitchell to four-years’ jail with a non-parole period of 18-months.

He said she would be eligible for release after 18-months if it was granted by the Attorney-General.

Originally published as Laura Louise Mitchell jailed for money laundering in cryptocurrency scheme