Father guilty of attempted bank scam

A father of six who used fake immigration documents to open bank accounts as part of a province-wide scam to withdraw funds made available through overdraft protection likely didn’t profit from his crimes, court heard Thursday.

Duc Luu, 53, a resident of North York, was placed on probation for 12 months after he pleaded guilty in an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines to several charges including impersonation of another person.

On April 14, court heard, Luu provided a permanent resident card as ID to open a bank account at an RBC branch in St. Catharines. A few days later, he went to a Thorold branch and attempted to open another account, this time using a different permanent resident card. The employee who assisted the defendant with the first account happened to be at the Thorold branch, court heard, and notified the manager. Banks issue temporary ATM cards when an account is created, court was told. New accounts often come with overdraft protection, which means a cardholder can withdraw some cash even though the account doesn’t have a balance.

Defence lawyer Jeffrey Root said his client was asked to participate in the scam by “someone in his community.”

“It was very unsophisticated,” he said. “It was fraught with failure from the very beginning.”

Judge Tory Colvin agreed.

“This gentleman is something of a pawn who was used by others,” the judge said.