A Colombian national was yesterday sentenced to a total of 10 years in jail after he admitted to stealing almost $3M from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) through the use of a series of fake ATM cards.
Freddy Vargas, 42, who identified himself as a former Major in the Colombian army, changed his pleas and admitted his guilt on 23 counts of simple larceny when he appeared before three different courts in Georgetown.
Vargas was before Magistrate Ann McLennan for nine charges of simple larceny, he was before Magistrate Annette Singh for seven charges and before Magistrate Judy Latchman for another seven charges.
The charges, in summary, stated that Vargas stole a total of $2,730,000 from various GBTI ATM machines during the period of July 18th to July 21st, of this year.
Prosecutor Kerry Bostwick yesterday informed the court that on July 17th Vargas entered Guyana legally via Lethem. He said between July 18th and July 21st, Vargas used fake Visa cards to withdraw various sums from GBTI ATM machines at different locations in Georgetown and Lethem.
According to Bostwick, some of the cards were recovered in the ATM machines and this discoveries prompted bank officials to inform the police. As a result, after reviewing surveillance footage the police apprehended Vargas at the Princess Hotel while he was trying to conduct a similar bank transaction at the location. He was arrested, shown the footage, and he admitted that the person shown was him, the prosecutor added.
However, when questioned yesterday in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court 3, Vargas, speaking through an interpreter, informed Magistrate Latchman that he was convinced by some friends to commit the crimes.
When asked what he did with the money, he said it was sent via Western Union to England, where the persons who convinced him to commit the offences reside. He further told the court that there was another person in Venezuela who was also involved in the plot and he had promised him money that he never received.
In addition, the court heard that a total of 92 blank ATM visa cards were found in Vargas’ possession and they are now lodged at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), at Eve Leary.
Vargas said the cards were sent to him while he was in Colombia by hackers who provided him with the information he used to obtain the money.
Magistrate McLennan sentenced Vargas to five years, while Magistrate Singh sentenced him to seven months. The two sentences are to run concurrently.
Later, Magistrate Latchman, in also handing down a five year sentence to the man, considered the seriousness of the offence, the fact that the acts were pre-meditated and also the need to send a strong message to other persons that may want to commit the offence. She said the sentence would be served after he completed the other five-year sentence.
