Ten years for fraudsters

The gang of six used documents that should have been shredded to assume the identities of customers and then tricked the banks into handing over thousands of pounds in cash and banker's drafts.

The group netted a total of around £35,000 in an 18 month period from branches of banks, mainly Lloyds, across the South. There were other failed attempts to get cash worth another £30,000. The six were yesterday sentenced at Hove Crown Court for their parts in the conspiracy to defraud.

The gang ringleader, 29-year-old Melvin Williams, of Telscombe Cliffs Way, Telscombe Cliffs, who was arrested after police found him hiding in an attic during a raid in Brighton in May last year, was sentenced to four years in jail. He had admitted the fraud.

Three other members of the gang, Sean Tree, 33, from Sutherland Road, Brighton, who was convicted by a jury, 34-year-old Paul Marcus of Balcombe Road, Peacehaven, who admitted the fraud and Emma Hatton, 27, from Grand Parade, Brighton, who was also convicted by the jury, were sentenced to two years in prison.

The two remaining fraudsters who admitted their part in the scam, 26-year-old Hannah Warman of Eaton Gardens, Hove, and Lara Scully, 34, of Balcombe Road, Peacehaven, were given 150 and 200 hours of community service respectively.

Prosecutor Robert Ward told the court the members of the gang were involved in almost 30 stings. He said: "It was a conspiracy which involved taking money from banks, in particular Lloyds. It was done by using details of genuine account holders and account names which had been obtained by methods including stealing waste paper from banks that should have been disposed of securely as confidential waste.

The gang got their hands on the waste after the bags of office papers were intercepted before being picked up by security firms contracted to shred it. He told the court the gang would ring the branch where the account was held and ask for a sum of money to be wired to another branch with a covering fax.

There, one of the gang, masquerading as the account holder, would use the false ID and

information gleaned from stolen information to convince staff to hand the money over. They would also pretend to pay worthless stolen cheques into the accounts they were drawing money from to make their story more convincing.

The gang operated across the South between January 1998 and May 1999. The scam was successful at banks including a NatWest in Lewes and Lloyds in Three Bridges, as well as other branches in Kent, Surrey and Devon.

Several other attempted stings were thwarted by bank staff and the net eventually tightened after a series of raids at addresses in Brighton. It was not until May last year the gang was finally shut down.

Mr Ward said: "A considerable amount of investigative work by a number of police officers pulled together the threads and the arrests took place piecemeal. The role of defendants in a case like this is not always easy to find."

All the defendants except Hatton had previous convictions for fraud and dishonesty; Marcus had more than 35 previous convictions for fraud or theft. Defending Marcus, Scully and Hatton, Philip Wakeham said the gang was not the movers and shakers in the conspiracy.

Ivan Krolick, for Williams, added: "I would invite you to come to the conclusion that the people at the very centre of the conspiracy are not before the court. A feature of this case is that it was not a random attack on some bank."

The gang was also ordered to pay costs for the prosecution out of the proceeds of the conspiracy. Williams was told to hand over £2,276, Marcus £1,780 and Scully £590.

Banks have changed their waste security procedures following the fraud. After the case, Detective Constable Tony Bell, of Sussex Police, who helped lead the investigation, said: "It was a protracted and complicated fraud. The whole thing was done very professionally."

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