Couple with 52 ‘credit cards’ caught buying a €3,400 ring

A COUPLE found with 52 cloned credit cards after buying an engagement ring worth €3,400 have escaped jail.

The Romanian pair, who only arrived in Dublin 24 hours earlier, were caught in Dundrum Shopping Centre car park when a suspicious security guard alerted gardaí.

The woman, Margherita Lupu, immediately took the ring out of its box and slipped it onto her finger, so a garda who followed them might think she had it all along. She also threw the receipt into a nearby bin.

However, the couple and their car were searched and the 52 cloned credit cards were discovered, 30 of which were in a sunglasses case in the glove compartment.

Silver Drescan, 32, previously of Sherrard Street, Dublin, and Lupu, 37, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having the cloned credit cards on June 25.

Both now live in Britain and are no longer romantically involved.

Drescan also pleaded guilty to the false payment for the ring and attempting to make more false payments for two mobile phones and two watches.

Judge Elma Sheahan sentenced Lupu, who has three children, to two years’ imprisonment but suspended it, provided she leave the State within seven days and not return for at least ten years.

Drescan was given a two-year sentence with the final 15 months suspended. The judge took into account his previous good work and that he has custody of two children.

She noted that Drescan’s level of education ‘means he ought to have learned a salutary lesson’.

Karl Monahan BL, defending Drescan, said his client took responsibility for buying the cards online. He asked that his client not be ordered to leave the country as his children are at school in Dundalk.

A Garda witness agreed that Drescan was ‘the ringleader’.

Judge Sheahan said the aggravating factor in Lupu’s case was the seriousness of the offence.