Mr. Michael Cryan:

I have done a lot of appeals and awareness campaigns through the media telling people, basically, not to be a money mule. There are huge ramifications, particularly for young people, in being money mules quite apart from the conviction, potentially going to prison and the bank account issue. There is also travel - visas to travel and to work. A money laundering conviction is a very serious conviction to have. You are also getting into bed with serious organised crime. The money from this type of what we call cyber-enabled crime funds other criminality. It goes back to transnational organisations worldwide. It funds all sorts of criminality and corruption. It pays the bribes in other countries. Profits made worldwide from these types of crimes are in the billions. This is who you are getting into bed with. As the assistant commissioner said, money mules are now being forced to go to the ATMs, take the money out, go into their own bank accounts and try to spin a story to a bank official as to why the money should be allowed to move. They are being brought into shops to make purchases of high-end goods and their own accounts are being cleaned out. If you give control of your bank account to a criminal and, for example, €10,000 comes in and you had €2,000 in it, he will also take the €2,000 already there and you will not get the money you were promised. As I said about many of these cases, all the money mule gets is an arrest and a conviction.