Kentish Express Ashford & District
Delays after car bursts into flames
Drivers faced delays on a main road in Ashford after a Ford Focus burst into flames.
Fire crews were called to the A2070 Bad Munstereifel Road just after 11am on Friday.
They found the silver vehicle alight close to the Ashford Orbital Park industrial estate.
One fire engine was sent to the scene, and crews spent about 40 minutes tackling the blaze. Police controlled traffic. An Ashford gambler “blew” £80,000 in two days at some of London’s top fashionable shops.
Chen Guangming – who works at a Chinese Restaurant in Ashford – splashed out nearly £50,000 at Harrods.
The 45-year-old, £200-a-week waiter then went to Apple, Selfridges, All Saints and Mappin and Webb, before hitting two casinos.
But now a judge has heard that the £80,000 was not his winnings but had been stolen by a gang of fraudsters from bank accounts.
Canterbury Crown Court heard how Guangming, of High Street, Ashford, agreed to act as a “mule” for the gang and that none of the purchases had ever been recovered.
Guangming later told police he agreed for his bank account to be used, in exchange for 4% of the fraud – about £3,200.
Prosecutor Andrew Forsythe said the waiter received two payments totalling £80,000 in two separate bank accounts in his name.
He said: “Those funds had been taken fraudulently from Barclays customers in online transactions. And within 24 hours of receiving the payments, the defendant made numerous highvalue purchases.”
The prosecutor added that Guangming acted as “a mule” and was caught on CCTV cameras at the casino in the company of another man who has never been identified. Mr Fosythe added that the same victim had been defrauded by the gang of more money which had then been channelled into another person’s account.
Guangming had been traced by police as he had used his passport to register to gamble at the Hippodrome and Caesar casinos.
He later claimed he agreed to take part in the scam because of his gambling addiction which had left him with a debt he couldn’t repay.
The father-of-one had pleaded guilty to converting criminal property and was jailed for a year.
Speaking through a mandarin interpreter, The Judge, Recorder Jonathan Higgs QC, told him: “This was a highly sophisticated offence involving money being defrauded electronically.
“This was then, in a professional way, used to purchase high-value items so as to provide a difficulty to police as to where the money has gone.
“You allowed your bank accounts to be used to launder this money. You say you are concerned about the impact of a jail sentence on your son, it’s not me that’s caused this impact but you through your criminal conduct.”
‘This was a highly sophisticated offence involving money being defrauded electronically’