An India-born computer specialist who was the mastermind behind Britain’s biggest fake credit card racket has been jailed for six years.
Anup Patel and his accomplices had amassed nearly $3.6-million by making counterfeit credit cards and using them in several countries in Asia and Europe. Police believe they would have cheated people of 16 million pounds ($32-million Cdn) by now had they not been caught.
A computer sciences graduate from Kingston University, Patel stole original credit card numbers and PIN (Personal Identification Numbers) and engraved them on counterfeit cards.
The fake cards were transported by an accomplice, Anthony Thomas, to countries in Asia like Thailand and eastern Europe where the chip-and-PIN security system is not in use. Local members of the gang withdrew money using those cards by faking signatures of the original card holders.
The police launched an investigation after motorists using the gas stations on the M25 motorway received credit card statements citing purchases and cash withdrawals in various countries.
Patel managed to steal details of nearly 19,000 cards. Police suspect that Patel’s gang collected the data from petrol pumps on the motorway near London with the help of secret cameras and data card readers. Thousands use these pumps for fuel daily and payment is almost always through credit cards.
The operation was busted in October, 2006 when the police raided Patel’s rented office premises at the Croydon House Business Centre in south London. Inside they found thousands of magnetic strips and blank plastic cards, a library of 19,000 skimmed card and PIN details, holograms, card printers, corrupted payment terminals and 20,000 pounds ($39,800) in cash.
Patel gave himself up to the police after his accomplices had been arrested in Thailand and at London’s airports.
Prosecutor David Povall said Patel had earlier been jailed for two years for a credit card fraud in France a decade ago.