Till rolls fed a £350,000 con on Web

17 May 2005

Two students who used 160 stolen credit card details to buy more than £350,000 of computer software faced jail yesterday.

Oluwaxeun Akinwale, 24 and John Laniyan 19, bought the software using card numbers from till rolls stolen from Halford and Thresher stores.

They then placed orders for hundreds of items over the Internet.

The computer science and IT students used their expertise to buy up to 27 Web programs worth up to £2,000 each, a day.

Such was their success that 19-year-old Laniyan was able to run a £10,000 BMW.

Only seven of the programs were found in a raid on the defendants’ flat, James Dawson, prosecuting told Southwark Crown Court. The rest, he added, might have been sold on Internet auction site eBay or at car boot sales.

Mr Dawson added: ‘Between August 19 and September 3rd 2002, 365 orders for software were placed online using compromised credit cards.

The software would then be sent to 11 addresses associated with them, suggesting there were other people involved.

The pair completed a total of 421 online transactions in one month.

Police tracked down the computer they used in the fraud to a flat they shared in East Ham, East London.

They also uncovered a false passport and lists of stolen credit card details.

Akinwale and Laniyan each admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud Macromedia and the clearing banks of England and Wales between January 1st and November 13th 2002.

Judge Jeremy McMullen, QC adjourned sentencing until June 13 but warned the pair that all options remained open. They were released on conditional bail.

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