A gang duplicated victims’ mobile numbers, intercepted bank password resets and raided dozens of accounts. Ami Enabulele pleaded guilty to 185 charges arising from the scheme. The stolen money was returned to customers, but the bank, policing system, courts and prison service carried the consequences.

185Charges involving laundering, theft, attempted theft and unlawful computer use.
€205,201.93Taken from dozens of personal accounts.
45Accounts accessed from a suspect IP address.
~€297,000Three-year custodial-term benchmark; not an actual bill.

How accounts were taken over

The fraud exploited the connection between mobile-phone numbers and online banking. People working in phone shops were described in court as complicit in obtaining replacement SIM cards bearing victims’ numbers. The gang then initiated bank password resets, intercepted the text messages and gained access to accounts.

AIB’s fraud team detected that one IP address had accessed 45 personal accounts. A device identifier linked the same equipment to the takeovers. One victim’s account was accessed 59 times in six days and lost €11,259. Across the case, individual losses ranged from about €1,000 to €50,000.

The defendant and sentence

Enabulele, then 27, lived at Glendale Manor in Letterkenny and was described as an asylum seeker, unemployed and a father of three. He admitted involvement after his May 2019 arrest, said he knew it was wrong and claimed he received about €10,000. Court reporting said he became involved through friends and had links to higher-level members of the Black Axe organisation in Dublin.

He pleaded guilty to the 185 charges. Judge John Aylmer imposed a four-year sentence and suspended the final twelve months, leaving a three-year custodial term. The judge characterised the conduct as significant fraud and dishonesty. Enabulele’s admissions and cooperation were relevant mitigation.

The cost beyond the stolen money

Customers were reimbursed, leaving AIB out of pocket. The public system then funded a national economic-crime investigation, device and network analysis, prosecution, court time, legal aid and imprisonment. None of those bodies publishes a defendant-level invoice.

Using the Irish Prison Service’s 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space, the three-year custodial component equates to a gross benchmark of €297,216. It is not the actual cost of Enabulele’s detention. Remission and actual dates may reduce time served; historical annual rates differ; policing and court costs are omitted.

The system failure exposed

A bank security control was defeated by corrupt or complicit access elsewhere in the identity chain. A reset text was treated as proof of possession even after a number had effectively been hijacked. Once one device could enter dozens of accounts, the fraud acquired industrial scale.

The immigration fact is specific and sourced: reporting described Enabulele as an asylum seeker at sentencing. That does not establish the outcome of his protection claim, his current status or any deportation decision. Those are precisely the matters the State should record and resolve after a serious conviction rather than leave to speculation.

Questions after sentence

  1. Were the complicit phone-shop employees identified and prosecuted?
  2. What protection decision or immigration permission applied to Enabulele?
  3. Was his case assessed for deportation after sentence?
  4. How much did AIB absorb after reimbursing customers?
  5. What controls now prevent a replacement SIM from defeating bank authentication?

Sources

Record checked: 22 July 2026.

Related case files

Funmi Abimbola

The bank employee who facilitated the same organisation.