Scam snares trusting Filipina, who gets 6 months in jail

 

Employer's ex-wife was the recipient of dirty money deposited to defendant's bank account

Do not trust anyone, even your employers, if they ask you to accept deposits in your bank account because, in the end, it’s just you who will be responsible if the money turns out to have come from a scam.

This was a lesson that Vinecar Vineles, a 39-year-old domestic helper, learned the hard way after she was jailed for six months for allowing her HSBC bank account to be used as recipient for illicit payments totalling $97,000.

She remitted the entire amount  to her employer’s former wife, who now lives in Thailand.

Vineles was sentenced at West Kowloon Court by Principal Magistrate Amy Chiu after she pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Sept. 25) to money laundering, otherwise known as "dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of indictable offence."

The offence is punishable under the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, for which the prescribed maximum sentence is 14 years in prison and $5 million fine.

Pindutin para sa detalye

Magistrate Chiu expressed sympathy for Vineles, noting that she did not benefit from these transactions and had no knowledge of the scam, but stressed that the offense was serious and required a prison term.

She cited three previous cases in which the starting points ranged from six months in prison for money laundered amounting to $20,000; to 15 months imprisonment in a case involving $290,000. A more comparable case, which involved $95,000, had a starting point of 12 months.

In Vineles’ case, Magistrate Chiu chose nine months’ imprisonment as the starting point, and then reduced it by a third for her guilty plea.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

The case arose after the ex-wife of Vineles’ employer called to ask for her HSBC account’s number and told her to expect payments, which she would then remit to her in Thailand.

Her lawyer said that since she had worked for the family for more than 10 years, eight of them with the woman, she agreed.

It turned out that the money had come from a scam involving the fake takeover of beauty salons that were going out of business, with the promise of a profit for investors once the businesses were sold after being made profitable.

According to the case read in court, a victim identified as Prosecution Witness 1 (PW1), joined the takover bid and paid an initial $52,000 in three deposits into Vineles’ account.

Basahin ang detalye!

When PW1 heard nothing more about the deal, they complained to police, who traced the bank account to Vineles.

Investigation showed that other deposits were also made into the account between Oct. 29, 2022 and Aoril 3, 2023, with the total reaching $97,000.

After being arrested, Vineles initially denied knowledge of the scam, saying he was just following orders from her employer’s ex-wife.

But as this case has shown, that was not an acceptable defense as by lending her bank account, she should have known that she was dealing with proceeds from a crime.

She changed her mind shortly before she appeared in court, according to a source.

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