Co-op stores lost out to teen’s bank cards fraud

Visiting student carried out the store fraud

A TEENAGE fraudster targeted Co-op stores in Leicestershire.

Latvian national Anton Nilovs visited the UK in June. Within a few weeks, the 19-year-old student had used cloned bank cards for 32 dishonest transactions, worth about £6,000.

He targeted Co-op stores in Oakham, Ratby, Great Glen, Markfield and Castle Donington.

Leicester Crown Court was told Nilvos was operating with at least two others.

He took 20 per cent of the profits and the organisers took the rest.

Christopher Jeyes, prosecuting, said the defendant would visit the stores wanting to purchase phone top-ups or put money on to a pre-paid debit card.

Each transaction was worth about £250 and if one card was successful he would repeat the process in the same store.

If a cloned card was declined, he would produce a different one and use that.

CCTV showed Nilovs carried out most of the transactions, although two other males were also involved.

On June 29, the Co-op’s loss prevention officer was at the store in Great Glen to discuss the frauds with staff – when Nilovs walked in. He had committed fraud there a week earlier.

Staff alerted the police and stalled him with excuses, resulting in an arrest.

Nilovs, of Arden Grove, Ladywood, Birmingham, was released on bail but committed another offence.

He pleaded guilty to eight specimen counts of fraudulently using cloned bank cards, between June 18 and July 14.

The court heard that the Co-op in Oakham was targeted on four days during that period.

Sentencing Nilvos to six months’ detention, Recorder William Harbage QC said: “You came to this country in June this year and were immediately involved in a large number of offences of dishonesty. I’m told you wish to go back to Latvia after your sentence – I hope you do.”

James Doyle, mitigating, said: “There were others involved and it’s unlikely he would have come up with the scheme on his own.

“It’s suggested he was the front- man, the one who went into the stores and it appears he was taking a cut of the proceeds.

“He was bought up in Riga, Latvia, by a single mother and was successful in the education system, having completed a threeyear maritime engineering course. He came to the UK to make some money during the summer, to fund a further qualification in Riga, and the idea was to live with a friend in Birmingham to do manual work.”