A gifted young footballer who met an elderly man while posing as a bank employee in order to collect what he said was a hacked debit card has been sentenced for theft.
Oumar Dao (22), of Glaslinn, Portrane Road, Donabate, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to a charge of theft in November 2023. Garda Luke Doran told the court that the victim, who was 78 at the time, had been contacted by text the day before by a person pretending to be from AIB, warning him that his account had been hacked.
The victim was advised to “click on a link” and subsequently shared confidential information, including the PIN for his debit card. The next day, he received a phone call from another person claiming to be an AIB staff member, who arranged to meet him to collect the compromised card so that a replacement could be issued.
Gda Doran informed prosecuting counsel Marc Murphy BL that Dao met the victim and took possession of the card, assuring him that a new one would be delivered. Over the following days, a total of €3,764.70 was withdrawn from the victim’s account through several ATM transactions in areas including Malahide Road, Dublin, Dun Laoghaire and Donabate. The card was also used to purchase food at McDonald’s.
On November 21, 2023, Gda Doran spoke with the victim after he discovered his account had been emptied. The man explained that he had met someone days earlier who claimed to be arranging a replacement card. A friend of the victim provided the registration number of the suspect’s car to gardaí, and Dao was identified because the vehicle was registered in his name.
Gardaí also obtained CCTV footage from the ATMs where the withdrawals were made and confirmed Dao as the individual taking out the cash. A search of his home uncovered clothing that matched what the suspect was wearing in the CCTV images.
Dao was arrested and questioned. Although Gda Doran said that “nothing emerged from his interview” with gardaí, Dao later entered an early guilty plea. He has 30 previous convictions, mostly related to road traffic offences, along with one conviction for money laundering dealt with in the District Court.
The victim did not submit a victim impact statement, but Gda Doran confirmed that the bank reimbursed the money taken from his account.
Gda Doran agreed with defence counsel Oisin Clarke BL that Dao did not attempt to conceal his identity when meeting the victim and that he used his own car to travel to the appointment.
Mr Clarke told the court that Dao comes from a hardworking family and is well educated. He said Dao did not want his parents present in court. “They did not raise him to behave in this way,” counsel said.
The defence acknowledged that Dao had been associating with “unsavoury” individuals at the time but has since cut ties with them and has not come to the attention of gardaí recently. He is currently enrolled in a welding course and hopes to study mechanical engineering in the future.
Mr Clarke also said his client had been a talented footballer, playing in the North Dublin School Boys League from the age of 12 to 16. After being released from his team at 16, he trained with a local side for about a year before realising he would not become the professional player he had hoped to be and stopped training.
According to counsel, once Dao lost the structure provided by intensive football training, he began mixing with the wrong crowd and came to the attention of gardaí. Judge Patricia Ryan described the offence as a “deceptive crime” in which an elderly man was exploited.
She noted that while there was no victim impact statement, the incident must have caused the man considerable distress. Judge Ryan said the offence was “planned and deliberate” and targeted a vulnerable person, adding that a headline sentence of three years was appropriate.
Taking into account Dao’s early guilty plea, his studies and his offer to raise €2,500 for the victim as “a practical sign of remorse,” she imposed an 18-month sentence fully suspended on strict conditions. These included that Dao lodge €2,000 in court for the victim by May 15. Dao had €500 in court on the day, which was handed to Gda Doran to be passed on to the victim.
