A defendant has pleaded guilty to money laundering and ordered to pay in excess of £9,000 after being part of a scam, which cloned the details of a Dudley-borough business.

An investigation by Dudley Council’s trading standards found that defendant Cornel-Vasile Marasoiu of 138A New Town Street, Luton had been complicit in a scam.

In February 2020, the company’s information was cloned by scammers to create a fake website where they falsely advertised the sale of plant equipment and machinery.

When the scammers falsely sold a piece of farming equipment for £7,170, the defendant allowed his bank account to be used to receive the fraudulent funds.

The defendant pleaded guilty to money laundering at Dudley Magistrates’ Court on Friday April 5. During the hearing, he said he was offered £1,000 by a friend to allow his bank account to be used. 

He was given a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay compensation of £7,170 to the victim, £1,900 in costs to Dudley Council and a £90 victim surcharge. Christopher King, head of environmental health and trading standards at Dudley Council, said:

"As part of this investigation, the team has gone to great lengths to protect a local business from the hands of scammers.

"Although we were able to stop the funds being transferred from the defendant’s account, his actions aided the scammers in their attempt to defraud consumers. He was complicit in this case, and I’m pleased with the outcome in court."