A Romanian national has been jailed for 16 months after he was caught outside a Leeds store involved in a scam fitting equipment to cash machines to cheat customers using them.
Domijian Husdup was arrested after a customer became suspicious about his behaviour near two ATMs in Drighlington, Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday. (Oct 18)
He and an accomplice, who has not been traced, had already defrauded another man who had tried to use the cash machine outside the Co-operative Store in Whitehall Road, Drighlington and found his card retained.
He was annoyed and concerned and as soon as he got home within 20 minutes he cancelled his card, said Joseph Spencer prosecuting. It had already been used four times to withdraw a total of £300 at another cash machine at Londis nearby in King Street.
Another customer David Burke, who was hoping to withdraw money after discovering a sign on the Co-operative cash machine saying it was out of order, had used the Londis store and noticed Husdup withdrawing cash more than once.
That raised his suspicions and after he’d thought about what he had seen he returned to the area and saw Husdup and the other man still in the vicinity. He told staff who alerted the police. He saw every time people used the Co-op machine the men returned and put their hand up to the top of the ATM and walk away.
When police arrived he showed them the machine where a mobile phone recording PIN numbers was discovered hidden under a plastic panel. A plastic cover had been fitted inside the card slot containing a magnetic strip secured with tape which already held another customer’s card.
Husdup, 23, of Forest Road, Bristol, admitted possessing articles for use in fraud at Leeds and Willington, co Durham, making false representations and possessing cocaine.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: “This is professional, sophisticated, planned crime involving fixing machinery to ATM machines.”