A man who tried to con a city law firm out of £10,000 after using their chip and pin machine to try to send the cash to his account claimed he only put his card in the device “to see what it would do”.
Steven McAuley could face a jail term after he tried to use an unattended chip and pin at RSB Macdonald’s offices in Dundee’s Crichton Street to steal the cash sum.
McAuley, 43, of Ferry Road, Monifieth, admitted a charge of attempting to obtain £10,000 by fraud on January 21 this year.
The charge states McAuley pretended he was authorised to perform a refund transaction and “attempted to induce Bank of Scotland to electronically transfer £10,000 from an account held by RSB Macdonald to a personal account held by McAuley”.
Sheriff George Way continued the case for three weeks for the Crown to investigate the “mechanics” of McAuley’s attempted fraud.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard senior lawyers at the firm were made aware of the fraud bid the following day when Lloyds TSB bank workers called and told them of the attempted transaction.
Depute fiscal Laura Bruce told the court: “On the Monday morning following this, Lloyds TSB contacted the firm and spoke to one of the partners and told them of the attempt to transfer money from their client account to this bank card.
“That had been attempted the previous day. The partner told them it was fraudulent. It doesn’t appear that a PIN number or anything was required to complete the transaction.”
However, McAuley claimed he had not actually intended to steal the money and was simply “curious” about what would happen if he put his card into the machine at the offices he had snuck into.
McAuley also told social workers preparing background reports into his case he had gone to the office to “think and reflect on his domestic situation” even though he had no reason to be in the firm’s building.
He said he then spotted the chip and pin card device sitting on a counter.
Sheriff Way said: “He says in this report that he came across the card machine and wondered what would happen if he stuck his card in.
“He then keys in £10,000 it could have been £1 million if he wanted. He then says that he realises something was happening and panics and pulls his card out.”
Sheriff Way said it was “crucial” the Crown investigate whether or not McAuley’s claims were true before he passed sentence.
He said: “It becomes crucial that I know exactly what happened. This is almost being presented by him as a prank or some stupid situation and that as soon as he realised something was happening he stopped.”
Grant Bruce, defending, said: “His only concern is that his life is on hold at the moment.”
RSB Macdonald declined to comment on the case when approached by The Courier.