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Card-cloning illegal immigrants locked up by Grant Woodward |
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A JUDGE delivered a stinging criticism of Britain's immigration system as he caged two illegal immigrants for their roles in a cash card cloning ring.
Judge Robert Bartfield said yesterday that he wanted to quash the impression that Britain was a soft touch for those from abroad looking to make easy money.
Leeds Crown Court heard the men – both Romanian – were part of an Eastern European gang which targeted a West Yorkshire branch of supermarket chain Asda.
Their scheme involved fitting a false front to a cashpoint at the store at Glasshoughton, Castleford, to record customers' bank details, along with a hidden camera to capture their PIN numbers.
However, the money-making plot was rumbled by eagle-eyed security staff who alerted the police.ChipClosed circuit television footage caught one of the group fitting the spoof front with an electronic memory chip hidden behind it to read the card details of anyone who used the machine.
Another was seen fixing a tiny camera near to the cashpoint to film people's PIN numbers as they keyed them in.
Bogdan Lupu, 18, who pleaded guilty to the offence of conspiracy to commit theft, was given two years detention in a young offenders' institution.
Sergey Bostan, 27, who had denied the charge, was jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Judge Bartfield told them: "No one can avoid the position that men come from Eastern Europe to commit these crimes in high numbers.
"It may be that people in Eastern Europe think that the UK will be as soft on crime as it is in permitting people like you to enter without very much examination of who you are.
"That is a mistake and I need to make it plain by these sentences that there will be the unpleasant prospect of imprisonment here."
Bostan had forked out £2,000 to get into the country using a false passport, whilst little is known about how Lupu came to be in the UK.
Judge Barton said he was satisfied that both had come here not to work but to commit crime.
Lupu – who was seen on CCTV fitting the secret camera – claimed he had been snatched from the streets of Romania and brought to Britain under duress.
But Judge Bartfield told him: "You are a liar and I don't believe a word you said."
Turning to Bostan, who was shown supervising the sting but claimed he was at Asda looking for a job, he said: "Your story was ridiculous and the jury rejected it."
Judge Bartfield vowed to make recommendations to the Home Secretary that the pair be deported from Britain once they had served their sentence. From Leeds Today |
