A foreign student involved in a fraud that cost Br

A foreign student involved in a fraud that cost British Telecom a
quarter of a million pounds has been jailed for three years.

Palestinian Mahdi Salameh was one of many others who gained
access to BT’s Three Star System which enabled them to connect
separate callers across the globe, particularly throughout the war-
torn Middle-East.

Just days before the end of the trial at Southwark Crown Court,
Salameh, 29, of Worple Road, Wimbledon, pleaded guilty to conspiracy
to defraud BT between August 1990 and September last year.

Salameh and student Mohammed Blawni, 27, of Thornhill Road,
Birmingham, had both denied that charge.

The jury went on to acquit Blawni.

Judge Mota Sing, QC, told Salameh:
‘What you did was really quite wicked in my view.

Wicked because
it abused the hospitality this country afforded you.

‘You and others not before the court perpetrated a deliberate and
well planned but simple and effective fraud on British Telecom.

‘
The judge described how Salameh moved around different addresses to
avoid detection and used false names and bogus company titles.

‘It was said you were providing a service in the Middle East that
was not available there because of the troubles.

‘
Judge Singh said that Salameh had no ‘altruistic feelings’ because
he charged for the service he was running without himself paying a
penny to BT.

‘The total amount which remained unpaid was in the region of pnds
stlg 250,000.

‘You may not have been the originator of the scheme but you
certainly continued it.

‘
Judge Singh jailed him for three years and made a recommendation
for his deportation at the end of his sentence.

The jury heard how in the Summer of 1990 Salameh and other
foreign students based in London and Birmigham ran up the massive bill
with BT’s Three Star System.

Mr Ronald Thwaites, QC, explained that the system allowed two
separate callers across the world to speak to each other.

Salameh posed as an import-export businessman and originally
started the service from an office in Putney but he managed to
confound BT by using different names and moving around.

In two examples a pnds stlg 20,000 bill was left unpaid in Putney
while in Birmingham a single bill for pnds stlg 40,000 was run up.

The jury were shown a list which documented calls originating
from Britain connecting people between the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan,
Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, as well as the USA and
Australia.

BT investigators managed to catch up with the fraud at the
Birmingham end when they found calls being shown as not paid at one
address matched connecting calls which were being made from another
one.

Salameh was subsequently arrested on September 24 last year.

During the trial his co-defendant Blawni claimed that although he
worked with Salameh he was an innocent dupe in the fraud and knew
nothing of the dishonesty taking place.

Mr Michael Boardman, defending, said that before coming to
England in June 1990, Salameh had been ‘active’ for the Palestinian
cause in the West Bank where he had lived.

Counsel told the court that Salameh’s only funds were from
relatives in Saudi Arabia, but after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait they
were forced to leave and could no longer support him.

The fraud involved ‘agents in the West Bank’ who suggested he
could take part in the enterprise based in London and Birmingam,
continued Mr Boardman.

‘He certainly gained some thousands of pounds but by no means
vast amounts,’ added counsel.

ENDS