2nd November 2020, 12:47
Four fraudsters given prison sentences in connection with £10,000 worth of luxury items - the UK nationals also face extradition to Switzerland
Four UK fraudsters have been given prison sentences in connection with £10,000 worth of luxury items.
UK nationals Mohamed Abdulkadir Musse, Ali Mohamed Abdirahman, Hassan Siklawi and Touwana Mohamed were arrested in July by the Royal Gibraltar Police’s (RGP) economic crime unit. The organised crime group had been in Gibraltar in March, when they had purchased luxury items by manually entering stolen credit card details into Point of Sales machines.
The RGP said: “With this type of fraud it is often not discovered until the owner of the credit card sees the transaction on their statement sometime after the event, making apprehension of these types of organised crime groups very difficult.”
In the Supreme Court on Friday, the defendants pleaded guilty to fraud. Musse and Abdirahman were sentenced to six months in prison; Siklawi and Mohamed to 15 weeks.
As a result of collaboration with authorities in Swizterland, it was established that the fraudsters are wanted there in connection with £114,000 of fraudulent purchases. The Swiss authorities are seeking extradition.
The RGP says it “continues in its commitment to work in partnership with foreign law enforcement agencies to tackle cross border crime and dismantling organised crime groups who use international frontiers to try and stay out of reach of the law”.
