Published: October 18, 2023, 06:24h. 

Last updated: October 18, 2023, 06:25h.

A 22-year-old college student from the UK has been sentenced to 12 months of community service after scamming £24K (US$29.1K) from Grosvenor Casino Birmingham, as reported by Birmingham Live. The student memorized a supervisor’s PIN code and successfully transferred the money to his own credit account at the casino.

The defendant, Samuel Bob-Emmanuel, was a regular visitor to the casino and took advantage of his access to the PIN code on April 30. He then returned the following day to complete the fraudulent transaction.

Despite acting alone, prosecutors confirmed that there was no collusion between Bob-Emmanuel and the staff member whose PIN he obtained. Nevertheless, the scheme itself was deemed unsophisticated, with most of the money frozen by the bank’s fraud team and subsequently returned to the casino.

The defendant pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation, and his defense lawyer, Mohammed Naser, revealed that Bob-Emmanuel had taken a year off from college to pursue a job opportunity with the intention of improving his prospects for his final year of education, as reported by Birmingham Live.

Judge George Kelly acknowledged the unsophisticated nature of the scam, stating that the casino would have easily uncovered the money trail through their extensive CCTV coverage. However, he also noted that Bob-Emmanuel’s actions required a degree of planning, as he had intentionally taken note of the supervisor’s PIN and carried it with him to the casino the following day.

Bob-Emmanuel has been sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work and 25 days of rehabilitation activity. The court confirmed that the full amount stolen has been returned to Grosvenor Casino.