A man has been jailed for opening fake bank accounts across Melbourne in a trail of fraud, which ended after he tried to draw down a $187,000 cheque deposited in Williamstown.
Diea Kardan Sayhood was sentenced by the County Court to two and a half years jail with a minimum of 15 months.
Between November 18, 2013, and January 10, 2014, Sayhood opened seven bank accounts using false identification. By closing an account and transferring the balance into a new account in the same name, he managed to bypass the usual ANZ Bank practice of waiting several days for a cheque to clear.
On February 6, 2014, Sayhood went to the ANZ bank at Williamstown and deposited $300 plus a National Australia Bank cheque for $187,700 that he had drawn on a Keilor account he had opened.
The next day, he went to a bank in Williamstown and closed the account he had opened at Keilor, transferring the balance into an account he had opened in Airport West. The funds were transferred as cleared funds.
Over the next two days, Sayhood proceeded to drain most of the money from this account, mainly in foreign exchange at places like Travelex. He also made purchases at jewellery shops of up to $9000.
It was a pattern that Sayhood repeated from late 2013 to early 2014 at Airport West, Altona North, Coburg, Croydon, Keilor, Knox and Parkmore.
But in his bid to empty his account of $187,000 deposited in Williamstown, Sayhood came undone when a withdrawal
on February 10, 2014, at Melbourne Airport Travelex was refused.
He was subsequently interviewed by police, who found he had false identification in three different names.
None of the money has been recovered.
