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Three jailed for cash machine fraud
EQUIPMENT for cloning bank cards, including false cash machine fronts and pinhole cameras, were seized at a house in Wakefield after the arrest of a Romanian who was in the country illegally. Olwen Dudgeon
Two other Romanians were caught at the house in Kettlethorpe Road, Wakefield, following the initial arrest in Co. Durham, after a customer spotted a false facia fitted at a bank in Bishop Auckland.
At Leeds Crown Court yesterday, Richard Wright, prosecuting, said Cristinel Burlacu was stopped as he left the house with two black binbags which contained kits, tools, soldering irons and a wiring diagram for making false facias.
He tried to pretend he was putting out rubbish, leaving them by a wheelie bin.
Inside, officers arrested his colleague, Arunas Biliunas, and found the house had been set up for manufacturing cloned cards. Some forged credit cards were seized with other people's account details already encoded, and one had already been used to obtain 220.
Mr Wright said police believed they were trying to clear the house after hearing of the arrest of Marius Canulta in Bishop Auckland, but officers arrived before they could do so.
Burlacu, 25, Biliunas, 28 and Canulta, 31, were each jailed for three years after admitting conspiracy to defraud UK banks by dishonestly making, possessing and using equipment to obtain details of cards used by customers at cash machines.
Sentencing them, Judge James Spencer QC said the fraud would have enabled them to obtain large amounts of money, but fortunately they were caught before they could do so.
Mr Wright said on November 25 last year a customer discovered a false front on an ATM machine outside Barclays in Bishop Auckland. He pulled it off, and was immediately approached by two men who tried to grab it from him. By chance an off-duty detective saw what was happening, and identified himself.
The two men then ran off, but Canulta was chased and caught. He gave a false name, but his true address in Wakefield.
The false facia had a device to read the account details while a camera was also found attached to the machine for recording customers' PIN numbers.
Officers in Wakefield then found the equipment for the fraud and details of accounts already taken from machines in Oldham and Leeds. They also seized 2,900 in cash.
The three men had either exhausted applications to remain in Britain and should have already been deported or were in the country illegally.
David Brooke for Biliunas and Canulta, said they had intended to get legitimate work but had fallen to temptation.
After the case Acting Det Chief Insp Steve Waite from West Yorkshire Police's Economic Crime Unit urged people to be vigilant when using cash machines and cover their pin number when entering it.
"This is a high-tech serious and organised crime operating in our area and cannot be tolerated. Today's sentence sends a clear message that although high-tech this crime is detectable and the perpetrators will be brought to justice."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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