October 24, 2010

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1346329_750000_itunes_con_boss_pays_back_just_5_

A computer whizkid who masterminded a £750,000 iTunes voucher scam will pay back just £5.

Suhail Tufail controlled a gang of educated fraudsters who bought iTunes vouchers in bulk using stolen credit card details.

The vouchers were then sold on at a cut-price on eBay and specially set-up websites in a slick money laundering scheme.

A total of £777,278 of unauthorised purchases were made from Apple before the scam was uncovered. The company has now stopped selling iTunes vouchers in £100 units as a result of the scam.

Tufail is serving a five-year sentence for fraud and money laundering, but financial investigators can find no trace of what he did with the bulk of the £200,000 the scam is believed to have earned.

In a Manchester Crown Court hearing the 27-year-old, of Ashfield Road, Rochdale, was ordered to pay back a nominal sum of just £5 after a probe uncovered no assets.

Tufail’s partner-in-crime, Mohammed Rasool is also serving five years in prison after admitting fraud and money laundering. He has been ordered to pay back just £825.56.

IT expert Rasool, 25, of Milkstone Road, Rochdale, amassed the details of more than 7,000 stolen credit cards – hacked from a major online retailer – before passing details to Tufail.

Tufail persuaded friends and relatives to join him in the conspiracy by promising them they would all get rich. The recruits would work through the night buying £100 vouchers in bulk before selling them.

In May 2007 Rasool was stopped on a ferry at Hull laden with designer gear he had bought in the Netherlands. The trip, paid for with a stolen credit card, led to the gang’s capture after Rasool’s laptop was found to contain the stolen details.

When the fraud was discovered, connected bank accounts and Paypal accounts were frozen. This has allowed the authorities to claw back some of the proceeds of the scam from junior members of the gang.

Youth worker Zahid Iqbal, 28, of Milkstone Road, Rochdale, was responsible for nearly £500,000 of fraudulent purchases and must pay back £28,832 or face jail, while mum-of-two Anwar Bibi, Tufail’s 46-year-old sister, of Crawford Street, Rochdale, must pay back £7,227.

Business school dropout Mohammed Ali, of Oldham Road, Rochdale, who was ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work after admitting money laundering, will pay back £50.

Dr Kibriya Ahmed, 26, of Marland Hill Road, Rochdale, who is serving two years for money laundering, will pay back just £5, as will Ketanbhai Kantubhai Patel, 29, a scientist, of Kings Road, Ashton under Lyne, who was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work after admitting the same charge.