Underworld fraud website mastermind jailed

In Saturday's Yorkshire Post: A special report on the county's criminal underworld.

Renukanth Subramaniam, 33, was one of the masterminds behind a website for trading stolen banking information called DarkMarket, which was linked to losses of tens of millions of pounds.

The site was a "one-stop shop" for fraudsters, offering criminals a place to trade credit card details and discuss how to carry out financial crimes, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

Subramaniam, who came to Britain from Sri Lanka as an asylum seeker in 1991, was described as "pivotal" to DarkMarket's success.

He was its most active user until his arrest in July 2007, posting more than 1,000 messages on the site, the court was told.

Prosecutor Sandip Patel said: "We say that he was at the heart of DarkMarket, maybe not at the very moment of its inception but certainly soon afterwards."

Subramaniam was jailed for 46 months for conspiracy to defraud and 10 months for five counts of mortgage fraud, with the sentences to run consecutively.

Fellow DarkMarket user John McHugh, 66, of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, was jailed for two years for conspiracy to defraud.

Passing sentence, Judge John Hillen said: "Criminals should learn from this case that, even in cyberspace, there is no hiding place."

DarkMarket, which was created in 2005 as a virtual community for fraudsters, was shut down by an undercover FBI officer after a two-year global investigation.

Mr Patel said the case was "extraordinary" because the conspiracy was "founded and promoted in cyberspace".

"They were able to utilise modern technology in a way which gave them the capability to commit theft on an unprecedented scale with relative - but not absolute - impunity with no more than a dishonest will, a laptop, a mouse and internet access," he said.

He added: "In short, it was a Facebook for fraudsters."

The judge told Subramaniam he was "a crook on a wide scale", adding: "You have gravely abused the hospitality afforded to you by the UK.

"Instead, you have used the opportunities and freedoms you have been given to engage in sophisticated and serious crime."

Subramaniam, who was granted British citizenship in 2002, was described as a "loner" who worked in dead-end jobs and drifted around, staying with friends and family in suburban areas of London, including Wembley and Ilford.

But online he was notorious among cyber criminals and a key figure in the success of DarkMarket, the court heard.

Mr Patel said: "It appears that the seemingly routine life was a far cry from what was his digital persona as JiLsi."

Subramaniam also obtained 852,900 in different mortgages by giving fraudulent information about his employment and earnings.

His barrister, Harendra de Silva QC, stressed he was motivated by the "sheer buzz" of being involved in DarkMarket.

"It's not fast cars, yachts and so on. It's not that sort of financial acquisitive motive. This man lives in shared accommodation, driving an elderly Peugeot," he said.

Police discovered a sophisticated counterfeit credit card factory at McHugh's house, the court heard.

But Nina Grahame, his counsel, said he had made no more than 30,000 from his criminal activities and added that it was spent on things like alcohol, cigarettes, groceries and hotels "in Blackpool, not Las Vegas".

At its height DarkMarket boasted a membership of more than 2,000, and Mr Patel said it would be reasonable to suppose the losses it caused ran into the tens of millions of pounds.

The prosecutor cited the example of credit card details traded on the website which were acquired at a Texaco garage in Portsmouth, where a camera was hidden in the ceiling to record customers' Pin numbers.

A total of 74 different victims of credit card theft were identified, and between them they suffered total losses of 10,500.

"This is indicative of the scale of the fraud, if one takes that as an indicative example," Mr Patel said.

Worldwide there have been more than 60 arrests in relation to the DarkMarket site.