Athlone resident accused of €200k fraud to face trial
An Athlone resident accused of defrauding five alleged victims out of some €200,000 in total has been sent forward for trial at Mullingar Circuit Court.
Malawi national Bright Banda, formerly of Meadow Lane, Roscommon Road, Athlone, Roscommon, is due to go on trial next month to face 12 separate counts of deception involving five alleged injured parties in Athlone, Ballymahon, and Dublin.
The 39-year-old, who remains in custody after he was unable to meet the terms of his High Court bail, appeared at a sitting of Athlone District Court to receive a book of evidence before Judge Vincent Deane.
Garda Sean Bohan gave evidence of having served the book of evidence on the accused, while Sergeant Sheila Kenny said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had directed Mr Banda to stand trial on the 12 charges at next month’s sessions of Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr Banda’s defence counsel applied for free legal aid to allow both a junior and senior counsel to represent him given that the alleged amounts involved were in "the region of €200,000".
Sergeant Kenny said the State had no objections to the legal aid request, given the "significant amounts" of money that were referenced.
Judge Deane granted the legal aid request and gave Mr Banda the so-called 'alibi warning', telling him that if he intended to rely on any alibi at his trial he must provide details of it to the State within 14 days.
The 12 charges against Mr Banda relate to alleged offences at various addresses in Dublin, Westmeath, Longford and Roscommon between February 2023 and January 2026.
The defendant previously appeared at a sitting of Athlone District Court in April charged with four counts of inducing a named female to transfer a total of €17,000 between February 13, 2023 and March 31, 2023.
Three of those charges allege Mr Banda misled the woman into handing over three separate sums of €1,000 each.
The fourth charge contended that Mr Banda at Athlone Credit Union, on March 31, 2023, induced the same woman to transfer €14,000 from her credit union account to an AIB account.
That was followed last month by the addition of a further eight charges concerning the same woman and four other alleged victims.
The first charge stemmed from an allegation that Mr Banda induced the woman on a date unknown between February 2, 2023 and November 15, 2025 at an address in Athlone to transfer over €105,000 from her Revolut account.
It's the State's case that the six figure sum was allegedly transferred by the woman because she believed she was helping Mr Banda fund various business ventures back in his homeland.
The same woman is also alleged to have sent the accused a further €28,265 via her AIB account between February 1, 2023, and November 15, 2025, for the same purpose.
Over a two-week period in early 2025, Mr Banda allegedly induced a named male victim at another address in Athlone to transfer €3,000 for the supposed purchase of a vehicle.
Between April 1, 2025 and November 11, 2025 the accused is alleged to have induced a third victim, in Roscommon, into transferring €1,500 via Revolut relating to a bogus property deal.
Two further charges, relating to a fourth person, allege that Mr Banda duped a named male out of more than €15,000 at a property in Ballymahon, Longford, between October and December 2024.
It is alleged that Mr Banda received this €15,000 sum via Revolut and Bitcoin transactions for the purported purchase of two vehicles.
The two final charges relate to a fifth named victim, a woman whom the accused allegedly deceived out of over €35,000, at an address in Dublin 13, by way of Wise Money and Revolut transfers.
The State claims that this woman had transferred the money to Mr Banda believing that she was investing in a number of Airbnb businesses.
Mr Banda was remanded in custody, with consent to bail, to appear before a sitting of Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court on July 2.
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