Drunks on stolen credit card binge hired a jet, bought 3 stoves... and £35k worth of seafood
IT was a sustained booze binge so wild the two Scottish credit card scammers involved could offer no coherent account of their antics.
But a record of their spending tells its own sobering story.
Some time in the midst of their blow-out Jamie Abernathy and Brian Darroch ordered almost half a ton of halibut, Dover sole, lobster and king scallops, costing nearly £35,000.
Then there was a private jet, chartered for £3,600, to fly them from Blackpool Airport to Elstree, home of the famous film studios in Hertfordshire.
There were meals, hotel rooms and vast quantities of alcohol… not to mention three stoves ordered at a cost of £4,000.
As the two men from Ayr appeared in court this week, a judge was told it was not known what had happened to the fish and seafood, why they had wanted
‘Ashamed of his behaviour’
to fly to Elstree or, indeed, how they had come to order stoves.
‘Good heavens,’ said Judge Ian Leeming, QC, when told of the caper.
As details of the binge emerged, comparisons with Hollywood film comedy The Hangover, in which a group of friends try to piece together the events of a drunken stag night in Las Vegas, became inescapable.
Burnley Crown Court was told railway worker Abernathy, 46, and jobless Darroch, 35, had joined Bannatyne’s Health Club in Blackpool, Lancashire, using false identities.
Prosecutor Jonathan Dickinson said they claimed to be construction workers and gave a bogus address. He said staff became suspicious, checked the lockers in the changing room and found them locked with the keys removed.
Mr Dickinson said: ‘In the days after the defendants joined, a number of members of the club had their credit card details stolen. Their credit cards were among their property locked in the club lockers.
‘The credit card details were then used fraudulently in order to purchase hotel accommodati on, copious amounts of alcohol, meals and a private jet flight from Blackpool Airport to Elstree, costing £3,600. A little unusually, the credit card details were also used to buy seafood at just under £35,000 – namely 80kg (176lb) of Dover Sole, 80kg of halibut, 150kg (330lb) of lobster and 150kg of king scallops.’
The pair were arrested after staff contacted police. Abernathy had a bag containing 11 keys which were copies of locker keys. He had raided the lockers while Darroch claimed he kept look- out. They were given bail but later carried out a similar scam at another Bannatyne’s club in Burtonupon-Trent, Staffordshire.
The court heard on this occasion the pair ‘ bewilderingly’ ordered the three stoves.
Abernathy and Darroch both admitted conspiracy to commit fraud. Abernathy was given 20 months in custody, suspended f or two years and ordered to do 150 hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay £5,000 compensation to the seafood firm.
Darroch was given a tenmonth sentence suspended for 18 months and 100 hours of unpaid work.
Defending Abernathy, Steve Rudge said his client had a drink problem at the time and was ‘ashamed’ of his behaviour. For Darroch, Anthony Parkinson said his client had since stopped drinking.