Toowoomba tradie Phillip Thorburn pleads guilty to $32k fraud

A Toowoomba court was told a lonely dad was hoodwinked by an online scammer named ‘Beth’, and recklessly engaged in fraudulent activity to the tune of $321,000.

A lonely dad was hoodwinked by an online scammer named ‘Beth,’ and recklessly engaged in fraudulent activity to the tune of $321,000, a court heard. Picture: FILE

A court has been told a newly single and lonely Toowoomba tradesman was unknowingly recruited by a scammer after he began talking to a woman named Beth.

On Thursday, May 23, at the Toowoomba District Court, 45-year-old Phillip Barry Thorburn pleaded guilty to a freshly amended charge of recklessly engaging in money laundering.

The Crown discontinued other charges following negotiations with the father of two’s legal team.

The court was told Thorburn partook in the fraudulent scam in the first months of 2022 after meeting ‘Beth’ online, which was the first woman he engaged with following the breakdown of his marriage.

Toowoomba tradesman, Phillip Barry Thorburn fronted court for the 2022 crime on May 23, 2024.

When police took up with Thorburn after tracing two email scams to a bank account he opened, he told investigators about ‘Beth’ and that he had cut off contact with her after becoming suspicious.

The court was told he told officers ‘Beth’ asked him to create the bank account so she could get an inheritance, and despite being wary he decided to help her.

He said ‘Beth’ would make excuses as to why she could not talk on the phone and Thorburn fully co-operated with police during the investigation by making admissions and handing over his devices.

The court was told Thorburn approved the fraudulent transfers, however he was not linked to the emails containing his bank details which were sent to the victims, one of which was a business.

Thorburn fully cooperated with police during the investigation.

One email that was sent was allegedly about a property transfer, and the other was about an outstanding supplier bill, which totalled $321,000.

The transactions approved by Thorburn were then filtered through cryptocurrency before ending up in Bitcoin.

The court heard the panel beater and boilermaker did not profit from the scam and may have suffered a small loss himself as a result of it.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC said he sentenced Thorburn on the basis he was drawn into the scam by an online persona pretending to be a woman while in a seemingly vulnerable position following the breakdown of his marriage.

Thorburn was sentenced to a suspended two-year jail term.