PASSENGERS using the Heathrow Express, operating out of Heathrow Airport, were exposed to the biggest ever credit card fraud seen in the UK, it was revealed this week, after three men were sentenced to a total of 17 years.

More than £2 million was stolen from 8,000 credit cards over a period of 2 years from 1998 to 2000 by the gang of three, one of whom worked for Checkline, a company that processed credit card numbers of those using the Heathrow to Paddington shuttle.

He was able to pass on information to the other members of the gang who made copies, or ‘clones’ of the cards and used them to buy tobacco, alcohol and cigarettes around Europe, before bringing them back for sale in the UK. Much of the money made was then spent on nights out and soft drugs.

Sunil Mahtani, 26, from Watford, Shajahan Miah, 26, and Shaidul Islam Rahim, 26, both from Enfield were jailed at Middlesex Crown Court on Tuesday, September 9, following a lengthy investigation by the Met’s Specialist and Economic Crime Command.

It was Mahtani who worked at Checkline, after his uncle, managing director of the company recommended him. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud by obtaining details of properly issued credit cards and transferring those details to counterfeit credit cards and misusing the said counterfeit credit cards. He was sentenced to 9 years.

Miah and Rahim pleaded guilty to the same charges and were both sentenced to 4 years.

Further investigation into Mahtani revealed he had downloaded pornographic images of children onto his computer from the internet and was planning to distribute them. He pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of indecent photographs of a child with a view to distribution and two counts of creating an indecent photograph of a child, and was placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.

DS Richard Money, of the Met’s Cheque and Credit Card Fraud Squad, said: "This was the largest credit card fraud on what must be described as an ‘industrial scale’, where approximately 10% of the card numbers were used to commit over £2m worth of fraud.

"Organised crime these days is run in a very similar manner in which businesses are run. Credit card fraud is as organised as people smuggling, tax evasion (bootlegging), drug dealing, paedophile offences and terrorism and can impact on each of these areas of serious crime.

"Most of those crimes require a market, which is sustained by street level crime of burglary, robbery, theft and lower-level drug dealing. That can affect anyone. Credit card fraud can effect anyone and it is incorrect to suggest it is a victimless crime."