De Master Yoda
07-23-2008, 10:20 AM
07:00 - 17-July-2008
From: Hull Daily Mail.
A MAN accused of a “sophisticated” cash machine scam was found with 65 bank card details on a lap top computer.
The jury in the trial of Adu Bunu were told officers who raided his home also found mobile phone top-up cards with bank details electronically scanned on to them and PIN numbers written on the back.
Mr Bunu, 34, denies conspiring to steal £43,000 from cash machines.
Hull Crown Court heard yesterday how police raided Mr Bunu's home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on January 28 this year.
As well as the phone cards and laptop they found more than £4,000 cash.
A mobile phone with two sent text messages in its memory containing bank card details and a front door key for a house that stored components needed for the scam.
On day one of the trial, Paul Reid, prosecuting, said he would initially be focusing on cash machines outside Morrisons in Beverley and Waitrose in Willerby in July last year.
He showed the jury a modified front cover of a cash machine and a “throat” – the part of a machine into which bank cards are inserted -– that were recovered.
A pinhole camera had been placed inside the cover, which recorded customers as they keyed in PIN numbers.
A card reader had been fixed to the throat, which allowed bank cards to be forged.
Mr Reid said: “In September of 2007 it came to the attention of the police that cards were being cloned all over the place.
“None were fitted with CCTV, so police fitted covert cameras that covered them.”
On October 29 last year, PC Stephen Allinson had cautioned Mr Bunu for speeding in a Ford Mondeo on the M62 at Junction 37, near Howden.
Four days later, PC Allinson had been shown photographs of men wanted by detectives in connection with the cash machine fraud.
He immediately recognised one of the men in the photographs as Romanian national Mr Bunu.
Surveillance photos and footage showed Mr Bunu in the company of a fellow Romanian, Florin Palade, on several occasions, said Mr Reid.
A police team also raided Mr Palade's home, although no one was at home.
There they found 1,172 cloned bank card numbers, a card reader, 973 plastic cards, two false fronts for cash machines and eight modified “throats”.
Mr Reid told the jury how Mr Bunu's fingerprints had been found “all over the place”.
The lawyer said police surveillance showed Mr Bunu and Mr Palade had visited cash machines outside supermarkets in Hereford, Lichfield and Warrington.
Mr Bunu is charged with conspiring to steal from the Clearing Banks of the United Kingdom between January 1, last year and January 30 this year.
Individual banks are understood to have absorbed the loss and known victims were reimbursed.
The trial continues.
From: Hull Daily Mail.
A MAN accused of a “sophisticated” cash machine scam was found with 65 bank card details on a lap top computer.
The jury in the trial of Adu Bunu were told officers who raided his home also found mobile phone top-up cards with bank details electronically scanned on to them and PIN numbers written on the back.
Mr Bunu, 34, denies conspiring to steal £43,000 from cash machines.
Hull Crown Court heard yesterday how police raided Mr Bunu's home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, on January 28 this year.
As well as the phone cards and laptop they found more than £4,000 cash.
A mobile phone with two sent text messages in its memory containing bank card details and a front door key for a house that stored components needed for the scam.
On day one of the trial, Paul Reid, prosecuting, said he would initially be focusing on cash machines outside Morrisons in Beverley and Waitrose in Willerby in July last year.
He showed the jury a modified front cover of a cash machine and a “throat” – the part of a machine into which bank cards are inserted -– that were recovered.
A pinhole camera had been placed inside the cover, which recorded customers as they keyed in PIN numbers.
A card reader had been fixed to the throat, which allowed bank cards to be forged.
Mr Reid said: “In September of 2007 it came to the attention of the police that cards were being cloned all over the place.
“None were fitted with CCTV, so police fitted covert cameras that covered them.”
On October 29 last year, PC Stephen Allinson had cautioned Mr Bunu for speeding in a Ford Mondeo on the M62 at Junction 37, near Howden.
Four days later, PC Allinson had been shown photographs of men wanted by detectives in connection with the cash machine fraud.
He immediately recognised one of the men in the photographs as Romanian national Mr Bunu.
Surveillance photos and footage showed Mr Bunu in the company of a fellow Romanian, Florin Palade, on several occasions, said Mr Reid.
A police team also raided Mr Palade's home, although no one was at home.
There they found 1,172 cloned bank card numbers, a card reader, 973 plastic cards, two false fronts for cash machines and eight modified “throats”.
Mr Reid told the jury how Mr Bunu's fingerprints had been found “all over the place”.
The lawyer said police surveillance showed Mr Bunu and Mr Palade had visited cash machines outside supermarkets in Hereford, Lichfield and Warrington.
Mr Bunu is charged with conspiring to steal from the Clearing Banks of the United Kingdom between January 1, last year and January 30 this year.
Individual banks are understood to have absorbed the loss and known victims were reimbursed.
The trial continues.