A scammer who said his holiday to Dubai had been scuppered by document problems, claiming the cash back from his bank, was rumbled after posting pictures of himself enjoying his lavish trip on Facebook.
Adam Fraser is facing jail after making a string of bogus claims from Bank of Scotland – where he was working at the time – for “disputed transactions”.
Bosses became suspicious after Fraser claimed someone had been using his account to withdraw cash and buy items in transactions he was not making.
In one claim he told the bank his holiday to Dubai had been cancelled because his travel documents hadn’t arrived in time.
But investigators turned to Fraser’s public Facebook profile to discover he was lying.
They spotted images, now deleted from the social media site, of him enjoying his trip to the Emirate.
Fiscal depute Laura Bruce told Dundee Sheriff Court that Fraser had exploited a loophole he had discovered while working in the Bank of Scotland call centre in Dundee’s West Marketgait.
In total he obtained £5,746.42 by fraud by telling the bank his card had been used without his knowledge and consent for purchasing goods and services, and that he had been the repeated victim of fraud.
Miss Bruce said: “Staff at the bank became suspicious and investigations were made into the various transactions.
“In one of the transactions he told the bank he couldn’t go on holiday to Dubai but one of the investigators then saw a photograph on the accused’s Facebook page of him on holiday in Dubai.”
She said police were then informed and Fraser was interviewed by officers.
He made a full admission of his guilt to them, she said.
Fraser, 23, of Liff, Dundee, pleaded guilty on summary complaint to a charge admitted that between March 7 and August 31, 2016, at his home and at 2 West Marketgait, Dundee, and elsewhere to the prosecutor unknown, he formed a fraudulent scheme to obtain money.
He admitted that he repeatedly pretended to Lloyds Banking Group that the card associated with his account with the Bank of Scotland had been used without his knowledge and consent for the purposes of purchasing goods and services and transferring money and that he had been a repeated victim of fraud.
However, the truth was he had made the transactions reported as fraudulent and induced Lloyds Banking Group to reimburse the amounts claimed and obtained £5,746.42 of money by fraud.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said due to the nature of the offence he would be calling for social work background reports.
He deferred sentence until September 20 and ordered Fraser to appear again on that date.
