Pair jailed for £2m credit card scam

3:23pm Wednesday 29th October 2008

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Two men who netted nearly £2m through an intricate fake credit card scam have been jailed at Croydon Crown Court.

Anup Patel, 30, from Thornton Heath, and Anthony Thomas, 45, from Balham, forged thousands of cards at an office unit in Croydon.

Patel and Thomas managed to record the details of 19,000 genuine cards and pins.

The pair were jailed for six and two years respectively after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to steal.

Patel's home and office were raided by officers from City of London Police two years ago where they found £12,000 cash, a “significant” amount of equipment used to make fake magnetic strip cards, as well as the massive amount of data from 19,000 credit and debit cards.

Detectives believe the duo managed to capture the real card information by using fake payment terminals and hidden cameras installed at petrol stations around the M25 and elsewhere.

The accounts they had ripped-off had nearly £2m in purchases made on them as well as cash withdrawals from automatic teller machines around the world.

It is thought that the two men could have had up to £16m at their disposal had they not been caught.

There was also evidence that flights overseas had been booked for Thomas using fraudulent card data.

Detective Sergeant Simon Russen said: “Patel and Thomas were operating at the top end of credit card criminality.

“The potential losses on the card numbers recovered from the premises would account for in excess of £16m worth of losses to the banking world.”

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