Lankan jailed in U.K. for audacious India-linked scam

Prasun Sonwalkar

London, Aug 7 (PTI) A Lankan petrol station attendant,
who scammed an entire village in Leicestershire by cloning
debit and credit cards and stealing over 175,000 pounds, has
been jailed for nearly three years.

Abdul Samad Mohamed Raik, 33, was found guilty by the
Leicester Crown Court of cloning more than 500 cards between
October and December last year as part of a global fraud
allegedly linked to the L.T.T.E.

Raik, who possessed a fake Indian passport, reportedly
used the card details cloned to withdraw money in India from
bank accounts of the unsuspecting British customers.

Residents of the village, which has a population of
around 1,500, had no idea that they had been targeted until
informed by their banks that their accounts had been plundered
in various countries.

Raik used a fake card reader to copy the card details of
the victims. Fake cards were then used to withdraw cash from
the customers' accounts in various countries including India,
Australia, Senegal, Canada and the Philippines.

Justin Wigoder, prosecuting lawyer, said the owner of
Houghton Garage, Jim Funnell, had no idea what was going on
while Raik was at the cash counter. He worked at the petrol
station for 13 months.

He left the job at the end of 2007 when the scale of
the scam became clear to locals. He gave himself up to police
in March. He claimed he became involved after running up a
debt with a loan shark who was linked to the Tamil Tigers.

Raik told police that he was given the cloning equipment
and ordered to use it to pay off what he owed, and more. The
organisers also provided him with a fake Indian passport and
told him he could use it to flee the country afterwards, he
claimed.

Sentencing him, Recorder Duncan Smith yesterday said Raik
was guilty of a gross breach of trust towards Funnell, who
"relies on the good faith of his staff."

Raik first applied for entry into the U.K. as a student
in 1999 and was allowed to stay until 2006. He then applied to
remain as the spouse of a Latvian national, but the
application was withdrawn. His immigration status is now under
review.

"Your involvement in this fraud was brought to an end by
yourself after a relatively short period of time," Judge Smith
said.