Waterford phishing scam victim thought she was sending money to her son

A victim of a phishing scam thought she was sending money to her son, Waterford District Court has heard.

Kieran Reddin (36) of 50 Roanmore Terrace, Waterford pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering on January 19 and 22, 2025, at a sitting of the court this week, before Judge Kevin Staunton.

The court was told the injured party received a text purporting to be from her son, which said, “I need a favour. It’s a long story". 

She was asked to lodge €2,165 and clicked on a payment link.

The woman said she couldn’t send all of it from her bank account and so she sent €1,000 from her bank account.

She was then instructed to lodge the second payment of €1,165 into the defendant’s bank account.

The first payment went through, but the second failed and was transferred back to her account.

The court was told the successful payment was used to purchase cryptocurrency.

The injured party took screenshots, which she provided to gardaí.

When questioned by gardaí, the defendant said that while he did use the account before and after, he had no knowledge of the incident.

Acting for the defendant, solicitor Ken Cunningham said that his client had ongoing health issues and had been in hospital, but that he would “make good” on compensation.

Judge Staunton asked why, if the defendant had no knowledge of the incident, was he pleading guilty.

Mr Cunningham said that the definition of the offence included recklessness and that they could not prove that he had not been so.

The court was told the defendant had 11 previous convictions, including for criminal damage, as well as road traffic and public order offences.

Judge Staunton put the matter back six months and ordered Mr Reddin to pay €1,000 in compensation.

If he does this by his next appearance on March 10, 2026, the judge said he would suspend the six-month prison sentence for one year.