Burglars targeted hotels to steal bank cards

A SOPHISTICATED gang of burglars targeted hotels across the country, including a number in Warwickshire, to steal bank cards which were then used in a series of frauds.

Between them, the Coventry-based gang targeted around 20 hotels over a two-year period, making almost £38,000 from cards and cash they stole from guests’ rooms.

Craig Wills, who played ‘an enthusiastic part’ in the plot after he joined it, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to charges of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to commit fraud.

Wills, 48, of Coleridge Close, Coventry, who said he only became involved in the conspiracy in July 2013, more than a year after it began, was jailed for four years.

With him in the dock were Jamie Gray, 28, of Pegmill Close, Coventry; Steven Gilmartin, 42, of Loudon Avenue, Coventry; and Neil McCluckie, 37, of Sunbury Avenue, Coventry.

Gray, who admitted the burglary conspiracy on the basis that he was involved only on one day when 18 rooms were entered at the Brandon Hall Hotel in Brandon, was sentenced to 21 months suspended for 18 months, with 180 hours of unpaid work.

Gilmartin, who admitted taking part in both conspiracies on the basis that he took part in burgling one room at a hotel in St Albans and card frauds on three occasions, was sentenced to two years in jail suspended for 18 months, with supervision.

And McCluckie, who pleaded guilty to involve- ment in the fraud conspiracy by using bank cards on four dates, was sentenced to 16 months suspended for 18 months, again with supervision.

Prosecutor Lisa Hancox said: “They were part of a group that planned carefully to enter hotel rooms and steal bank cards, but they would also steal cash if they came across it and vehicle keys on occasions and then took the vehicle.

“They worked usually in pairs. When guests attended for breakfast or dinner they would give their room number, and one of the offenders would note that room number.”

The number would be sent by text or phone to another of the gang who, knowing there was noone in the room, would get in using either a stolen master key or locksmith’s tools.”

Once inside a swift search would be carried

They were part of a group that planned carefully to enter hotel rooms and steal banks cards but they would also steal cash.

out to obtain the guest’s bank card and, if they could find it, the pin number or something which might enable them to work it out.

“More often than not, however, they would call

the victim purporting to be from their bank, saying the card had been stolen,” said Miss Hancox.

She said that between May 2012 and October 2014, there were 22 instances of hotels being targeted, although she pointed out that not all had involved any of the four in the dock.

Wills was arrested at his home the day after the second of those. Officers found him trying to burn documents in the bathroom.

They were able to seize some of his notes which gave them information about the planning behind the raids. And on his computer they found he had been accessing an ancestry research site to obtain family information about people whose cards had been stolen, so they would have information such as mother’s maiden name when they contacted the victims.

In addition, many of the hotels had been entered into his car satnav, and cell-site analysis of his phone put him in the area of several of the hotels at the time they were hit as well as at places where cards were subsequently used.

Timothy Bass, for Wills, said he had run his own business making industrial pallets from 2002 until it went into liquidation in 2009 because of the recession – and he was ‘in a vulnerable state’ at the time he became involved.

Barristers for the other three referred to their more limited involvement, and argued for suspended sentences.

Sentencing the four, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said: “You were all, to a greater or lesser extent, a member of the group. The group activity was very serious indeed. And I accept you were not all involved in it for a long period.”

And she told Wills: “You are far more seriously involved in this than any of the other men in the dock with you. You were involved in the burglary of 16 hotels over a period of 15 months. I accept this was not your idea and that you joined a larger conspiracy that was already under way - but once you did join, you played an enthusiastic part in it.”