By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A man who was part of an international ATM-card skimming fraud targeting ATMs in Melbourne’s South East has faced sentence.
Diresh Kulothungam, 38, of Dandenong, pleaded guilty after a sentencing indication at the Victorian County Court to conspiring to defraud bank ATM customers in Berwick, Narre Warren and towns across Victoria, NSW and South Australia.
On 3 March, sentencing judge Gerard Mullaly said Kulothungam was part of an organised syndicate that installed card readers and pinhole cameras at the ATMs between December 2016 and January 2018.
The card readers would skim the card’s account details. The camera would film the PIN as the unsuspecting victim typed into the ATM keypad.
The “advanced” and “modern” equipment was imported from overseas senders in Canada, France and Switzerland.
Other ring-members in Australia, India, Indonesia and the UK used the details to withdraw money from the victims’ accounts.
Kulothungam was a “key organising link” in Victoria, who received the equipment and communicated with members installing and retrieving the devices at ATMs, the court heard.
However he was “far from a high-ranking conspirator” in the operation, the court heard.
He was linked to $39,000 withdrawn by others from victims’ accounts. There was another $99,000 in unsuccessful transactions.
Judge Mullaly said the overall amount stolen and Kulothungam’s share of the takings were “quite small”.
But the attack on the banking system was “criminality of great concern”.
“It undermines the services that banks can provide. So much of modern life does depend on cards and PIN numbers.”
The Tamil refugee fled persecution in Sri Lanka in 2008, leaving behind his parents and six siblings.
He met two of his co-conspirators Tharany Ramasamy, of Dandenong, and Ravishanth Raveendran, of Noble Park, in refugee camps.
Since 2018, Kulothungam was unable to continue cleaning and factory work due to his physical injuries.
A psychologist assessed him as an “anxious” and “socially isolated” man, who would find prison more onerous.
His generosity in helping other refugees, lack of prior criminal history and the long delay in his court case were also noted.
Ramasamy and Raveendran were more minor participants in the fraud. They had been sentenced to time already served in jail and a community corrections order on the basis of undertaking to give evidence against Kulothungam.
Kulothungam was jailed for nine months followed by a three-year supervised community corrections order.
The CCO includes 100 hours of unpaid work and mental health treatment.
