Man buys sim card with a forged signature and transfers money from his mother's bank account to his own

A 65-year old Turkish Cypriot man has been detained for transferring money from his mothers bank account to his own by clowning her details.

The suspect HM, 65 reportedly obtained a telephone line with a forged signature, accessed his mother's bank account and sent 48,800 pounds from the account to his own account.

The incident happened in February 2023 and he was arrested and taken to court on May 14, 2024 for "issuing a fake bank payment order", "obtaining money through fraudulent behavior", "theft", "forging a fake document", "putting a fake document into use" and "laundering the proceeds of crime".

Police said the suspect went to a GSM operator in Lefkosia in February 2023, requested a mobile phone line in his mother's name, and forged the phone registration agreement prepared in his mother's name by signing it himself. The police noted that the suspect made a mobile banking transaction with the mobile phone line he obtained in this way, entered his mother's information and the mobile phone number he received on her behalf into the system and obtained a mobile banking password.

The police announced that the suspect entered his mother's account with the password he received and transferred 48,800 pounds to his own account. 

Police stated that the complaint was recently filed and the suspect was arrested on May 14, 2024. Police said the suspect admitted his crime in his statement and deposited 25,000 pounds of the money he received back into his mother's account. 

Police stated that the part of the investigation that the suspect could influence was completed and requested that he be released on bail with an appropriate condition.

Evaluating the testimony in court, the judge released the suspect on bail on the condition that he pay a cash guarantee of 100,000 TL, bring two reputable guarantors of TRNC citizens to sign a surety bond worth 1 million TL, banned from going abroad and report to the nearest police station once a week.