Gang stole £37m in website fraud scam

A GANG behind one of the UK’s biggest online frauds, which conned people out of £37m by tricking them into using copycat websites, has been jailed.

It set up sites which mimicked official government services to sell passports, driving licences and visas at inflated prices, having paid Google to put its sites close to the top of certain searches.

Hundreds of thousands of people were fooled into thinking the sites were the official pages, as they used the same colour schemes and logos. The scheme was run by convicted fraudster Peter Hall, 47, who carried on offending even when he was under investigation and flouted a court order which told him to stop.

He and his partner Claire Hall, 42, of Medstead, Alton, Hampshire, made so much money she was preparing to buy a £1.4m house with cash when the authorities intervened.

Peter Hall was convicted at Teesside Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud following a trial in July and a second, separate hearing which finished yesterday. He will serve a total of 15 years in jail, Trading Standards said.

His partner Hall wept as she was jailed for four years after also being convicted of conspiracy to defraud.

Four other people have also been jailed in connection with the fraud.

Judge Sean Morris said: “Those who deceive in this way should expect to go to prison for a long time.”