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Man spared jail over card cloning
6 Aug 2009A man who took part in a card "cloning" scam at London's Selfridges store escaped a jail sentence today.
Recorder Steven Gee QC at London's Southwark Crown Court said he was impressed by Dean Ollivierre's pre-sentence report and remorse and imposed a term of 28 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.
He also ordered Ollivierre, 23, of Deacon Road, Willesden, north-west London, to do 160 hours of community work.
Ollivierre had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to four counts of fraud and one of possessing articles for use in connection with fraud, namely two Selfridges gift cards.
Prosecutor Roger Daniells-Smith said Ollivierre worked last December in a concession at Selfridges called Red 5, which sells "boys' toys", gadgets and gifts.
He said: "Selfridges' fraud department began to investigate the affairs of that section after they had received a number of complaints from customers that their credit cards had been cloned."
The common denominator was that all had done transactions at the Red 5 concession, and the transactions involved Ollivierre, who had keyed his unique code in to the till.
Counsel explained that when a customer did a transaction, they get a till receipt, which has their card number on it, and a copy is kept at the till.
Ollivierre had used the information to load up blank Selfridges gift cards, charging them with credit from those cards.
Mr Daniells-Smith said: "In effect he was using the gift card as a cloned credit card."
Ollivierre was stopped on December 12, having been seen to fraudulently load one of the cards the previous day, and he was in possession of two cloned cards, Mr Daniells-Smith said.
The total sum of the transactions was just under £4,000, but Mr Daniells-Smith said there must have been others involved in the scam, as in all, a total of £14,500 was defrauded from various customers using the system.
"We do not say that was the responsibility of this defendant," he said.
He said that Ollivierre was suspended pending the outcome of the case, and is of previous good character.
Patrick Harte, defending, said: "He accepts this a very serious matter, he abused the trust of the customers of his employer.
"His involvement was at the lower end of the spectrum, there was somebody else involved."
He said Ollivierre received £100 for each gift card that he left on a counter for somebody to pick up, and this was his only financial benefit. This was accepted by the prosecution.
Mr Harte said: "This is an isolated, foolish, regretful offence."
The judged told Ollivierre: "Selfridges gave you a chance with this job after you had been unemployed for a time.
"You have taken advantage of Selfridges' generosity in giving you employment.
"You have abused their trust because you have upset their customers, and you have acted fraudulently in your position of employment, and you have also abused the trust of the customers."
He added: "Normally I would have thought this was a case that required some custodial sentence.
"However I am impressed with the pre-sentence report, and I am impressed with the fact that you genuinely are remorseful about what you have done, and in these circumstances I am going to take a lenient course."
Reader views (3)
Tough on the victims of crime, tough for the victims of crime.
Well this 'crime pays' message from Labour is certainly getting out there.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 07/08/2009 09:07
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tough on crime...blah, blah, blah....when will these judges ever, ever learn?
- Gary, amersham, 06/08/2009 21:59
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another servere sentence what a deterent?
- Basil, bussiere poitevine 87320 france, 06/08/2009 16:04
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