HSBC bank fraudster in £15,000 swindle arrested at Leeds branch

Florin-Emanuel Burlan managed to obtain the cash within a week by committing offences at banks across the north of England before he was caught in West Yorkshire.

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Leeds Crown Court heard Burlan, 23, used fake documents including a passport and utility bills to open accounts in a false name.

Burlan was allowed to open accounts which offered an overdraft of £3,000.

Kristian Cavanagh, prosecuting, said Burlan withdrew sums to the overdraft limit soon after the accounts were opened.

The court heard Burlan committed offences at HSBC branches in Wigan, Manchester, Oldham and Middlesbrough between July 19 and 16 last year before he was arrested in Leeds.

Burlan was released on bail but was arrested at a HSBC branch in London on November 2 after he used fake documents in a bid to open another account.

Burlan, of Denby Street, Bradford, pleaded guilty to five offences of fraud and two of possession of false identity documents.

He was jailed for 16 months.

Vincent Blake-Barnard, mitigating, said Burlan was a Romanian national and committed the offences at a time when he was planning to return to his home country.

The barrister said Burlan came to the UK in early 2017 hoping to find work but could not find any.

He added that the offences were committed after he met someone who supplied him with the fake documents.

Referring to the offending, judge Sally Cahill, QC, said: “There was significant planning and it was high culpability.”