ATM fraudster’s five-year sentence upheld

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation upheld an October Court of Appeal’s ruling sentencing a bank employee to five years in prison after convicting him of using forged ATM and credit cards to steal JD17,000 from a local bank in Jordan in May 2017.

The court declared the defendant guilty of duplicating credit and ATM cards and using the Internet to steal money from local bank customers in May and handed him the maximum punishment.

Court documents said the defendant and another man installed card skimming devices at several bank ATMs in the capital and used it to withdraw cash.

“The suspect managed to duplicate the cards through the information he obtained from the skimming devices and used it to withdraw cash from different ATMs,” court documents said.

The suspect also used the credit card information he collected from the skimming devices to buy goods through the Internet, court documents said.

The bank notified the police after receiving multiple complaints from its customers who said they were receiving notifications of cash transactions from their account that they did not make, court documents said.

“A special investigation unit managed to locate the suspect and arrested him,” according to court transcripts.

The defendant had contested the Criminal Court ruling claiming that “he was not allowed to present his defence evidence in court and the court failed to rely on solid evidence”.

However, the Cassation Court ruled that the Court of Appeal’s judgement fell within the law, that the proceedings were proper and that the sentence given was satisfactory.

The Cassation Court tribunal is comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat, Naji Zu’bi and Bassem Mubeidin.