Leeds toy shop cashier stole customers’ credit card details in £160,000 fraud

Shkeel Ellahi was employed by Toyworld in Leeds and when customers used cards to buy goods he made a note of the three digit security number on the back.

Later he would take store receipts home with him and use the customer’s accounts to order items from Amazon UK.

Between mid December 2006 and May the following year, when he was made redundant, he placed 620 fraudulent orders for items, often games consoles, to be delivered to a range of addresses.

Clare Stevens, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday £83,251-worth of goods were delivered while a further £84,000 in orders was cancelled by Amazon before they were despatched.

After Amazon complained to the police, inquiries led back to Ellahi who had used his own internet account to place the orders but it was also discovered he had used 12 other addresses for the deliveries.

People at those premises were paid £20 to £25 when deliveries were picked up and five, at the most frequently used addresses were subsequently prosecuted.

Ellahi was questioned and was on bail when he absconded to Pakistan in 2009. He was finally arrested again last month.

He also admitted he had used the card details at other online companies to order goods including laptops, computer games and new flooring.

Ellahi, 38, of no fixed address, was jailed for 28 months after he admitted 12 charges of fraud by false representation and one of concealing criminal property. He asked for 20 other offences to be taken into consideration.

Sentencing him, Recorder Tahir Khan QC said: “This was a serious breach of trust by you offending against customers of your employers.”

The offending was persistent and it was an aggravating feature that he had left the country to avoid proceedings.

Graham Parkin for Ellahi said there was no professionalism in what he had done since he used his own internet account registered at his home address.

At the time he was in a difficult position because he was in a marriage which was not approved of by his family and fending for himself knowing he was facing redundancy.

When he admitted what he had done to his family he was sent back to Pakistan to be disciplined there.