Asylum seeker in £1m fake bus tickets scam

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Chinese national Ming Tang, a 42-year-old part-time labourer, was involved in a Triad scam which saw more than 3,000 fake £1 Saver tickets being used on buses each day - at least 10 per cent of the total number in circulation daily - at a cost of more than £1million a year.

The fakes were so good that Transport for London withdrew the design in June. This type of ticket accounts for around 8 million passenger journeys every year. Sources believe the true scale of the fraud could have been far higher.

Southwark Crown Court was told yesterday-that Tang, posing as a TfL worker, tried to sell tickets to a newsagent in Stoke Newington in October 2005, but the shopkeeper recognised that the serial numbers were unusual, and alerted police.

Tang, who was arrested with £1,800 worth of tickets, claimed to have acted under duress from Triad gangsters who threatened to "chop off his hands", the court was told.

Tang, of Epsom, Surrey, was convicted of trying to obtain property by deception and possession of criminal property. He will be sentenced later this month.