A computer technician accused of defrauding an elderly customer of more than $363,000 claims he merely acted as a financial adviser and helped her invest the money.
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Byung Uk Cho, 27, has been on remand in Canberra's jail since he was arrested at Sydney Airport early last month while preparing to board a flight to his homeland.
The South Korean man, who is charged with 27 fraud offences, applied for bail in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday.
In documents tendered to the court, police say Mr Cho was working for Geeks2U when he first visited the Yarralumla home of an 89-year-old woman in May last year to service her computer.
Officers allege that the following month, Mr Cho began transferring large sums of money from the woman's bank account into his own accounts.
In total, it is alleged that Mr Cho stole $363,020 in 27 transactions between June 2019 and February this year.
Police began investigating when the elderly woman's cousin became aware of suspicious transactions and reported the matter in March.
Throughout the course of their investigation, officers discovered that the woman had kept detailed notes of her dealings with Mr Cho, who she referred by names including "Geek" and "Kevin Geek".
On Monday, Mr Cho's lawyer told the court the transfers were "done by way of an investment program in South Korea".
He said Mr Cho had never intended to permanently deprive the alleged victim of the money and that the 27-year-old had, "in a truncated sense", been advising the woman on financial matters.
Things had gone awry, he believed, because of a language barrier and "poor communication".
The lawyer also told the court Mr Cho had given undertakings to police that he would "retrieve the money from South Korea and return it to the alleged victim" prior to his next court appearance.
This was at odds, he said, with police concerns that Mr Cho would seek to interfere with evidence or influence the alleged victim if granted bail.
"My client has no criminal history other than a driving offence," the lawyer said.
"It would be contrary to his lifetime behaviour to interfere with the alleged victim in any way."
The lawyer went on to say that concerns about Mr Cho being a flight risk were unfounded because police were now holding the man's passport.
"[The attempt to leave the country] was not fleeing justice," he said.
"This was returning to South Korea to undertake his mandatory military service."
Prosecutor Isabella Coker opposed bail, but did not need to detail why because Special Magistrate Margaret Hunter agreed without needing to hear her submissions that it should not be granted.
Ms Hunter said the amount of money outstanding was "significant", and she could see nothing that prevented Mr Cho helping police return it to the woman from behind bars.
"If the money was retrieved and deposited back into the [alleged victim]'s account, I might be minded to grant him bail," she said.
"The money appears to be in South Korea and once he has access to it, we've probably lost it."
The magistrate also expressed doubts about Mr Cho apparently having given financial advice, saying he was not qualified to do so.
She said there was nothing to suggest the alleged victim had intended to invest money in South Korea, and the elderly woman seemed to have engaged Mr Cho for a very different reason.
"It appears that she thought her computer wasn't working properly," Ms Hunter said.
In refusing bail, Ms Hunter said the prosecution case seemed to be "very strong".
She remanded Mr Cho in custody to appear in court again on December 3.
