Permanent TSB customers were tricked by fraudulent text messages into surrendering access to their accounts. A Slovakian company was targeted through invoice redirection. Money from the operation flowed through Iskilu Awolumate's account, and he pleaded guilty to handling criminal proceeds. The court rejected the idea that the scale could be explained as an innocent or minimal banking role.
Texts opened the door; bank accounts moved the money
Smishing uses deceptive SMS messages to induce customers to disclose credentials or authorise access. The court heard that 22 Permanent TSB accounts were affected. There were effectively nine injured parties across the indictment, although Gardaí could identify only three. A Slovakian company was also targeted through an invoice-redirection fraud.
A total of €25,800 passed through Awolumate's account. None was recovered, while Permanent TSB reimbursed affected customers. That reimbursement shifted the immediate financial loss from customers to the bank; it did not undo the offence or the investigation it generated.
The plea and the contested description of his role
Awolumate pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to handling proceeds of crime between March 2020 and January 2021. He said he was paid €100 per transaction, feared the people directing him and believed he was being watched. The investigating Garda did not accept that he was merely a low-level mule.
Judge Elva Duffy described a large-scale criminal operation using his account wholesale. The sentence followed the offence he admitted, not every act committed by the wider unidentified network.
Thirteen contact attempts and an extradition process
By the time of the investigation Awolumate was working as an equipment engineer in the Netherlands. Gardaí attempted to contact him 13 times through an email address supplied by his mother. He did not respond, and extradition proceedings began. He later presented himself at Tallaght Garda Station.
The court heard that he had come from Nigeria to Ireland aged 11, was an Irish citizen, attended school in Tallaght and studied transport engineering while working and receiving a grant. He had two minor road-traffic convictions. He brought €4,000 to court as a token of remorse.
Sentence
On 25 March 2025, Judge Duffy imposed two and a half years with the final year suspended, leaving 18 months of immediate custody. The reports record no later appeal decision or release date.
Chronology
- March 2020–January 2021: admitted handling period.
- After investigation begins: repeated contact attempts fail and extradition proceedings are initiated.
- Later: Awolumate presents himself at Tallaght Garda Station and pleads guilty.
- 25 March 2025: sentenced to two and a half years with the final year suspended.
Public-cost boundary
Using the Irish Prison Service's 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space, 18 months produces a nominal face-value capacity benchmark of €148,608.
Status boundary
Awolumate is reported as an Irish citizen who came from Nigeria as a child. That is his established status in the court record. The reports do not identify how or when citizenship was acquired, and no citizenship, deportation or removal process is inferred.
Sources
- BreakingNews.ie / Courts News Ireland, 25 March 2025 — plea, operation, money flow, background and sentence.
- The Echo, 1 April 2025 — local sentencing account.
- The Echo print edition, 27 March 2025 — archived court report and figures.
- An Garda Síochána, July 2021 — official Permanent TSB smishing warning and explanation of the fraud method.
- Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, section 17 — handling proceeds of crime provision.
- Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2024 — staffed prison-space benchmark.