The 2.5t Volvo ECR25D was offered for sale by Redmond on Irish auction site Donedeal. Fraudsters then used stolen company details from a legitimate organisation based in Northern Ireland, false bank transfer confirmation and anonymous online communication to 'purchase' the machine and transport it over the border. Within two hours, the fraudster and machine had disappeared.
Owner Declan Redmond said, "At the time everything appeared legitimate and professional. We believed that full payment had been made and the bank transfer confirmation gave us no reason to suspect the transaction was a scam until the machine had already disappeared. I hope that by speaking publicly about what happened we can help prevent someone else from going through the same experience.鈥�
The machine has now been listed on The Equipment Register (TER), a European database of stolen plant and equipment. Gareth Barkwill, head of recoveries at TER, said, 鈥淭his fraud case demonstrates the evolving methods being used by organised criminals targeting the plant and farm machinery market. Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated in how they impersonate legitimate companies and create convincing proof of payment documentation.
"We have no doubt that the digger will resurface for sale, which is why it is essential for buyers to check any pre-owned machinery against our database to check it鈥檚 not stolen."