A gang of fraudsters posed as wealthy Arab sheikhs
A gang of fraudsters posed as wealthy Arab sheikhs to buy pnds stlg 100,000 worth of rare Persian rugs, a court heard today (MON).
Janine Mitchell, 18, would get banker’s drafts which her accomplices would then doctor, the jury was told.
The gang would then dress up as mega-rich Arabs and visit carpet shops in London’s West End, it is claimed.
They would pay for rare rugs using the fake documents – and by the time the fraud was discovered, the crooks had vanished.
Police smashed the gang but only managed to nail Mitchell – who blamed her boyfriend for the scam, it is alleged.
Prosecutor Brian Kennedy told Southwark Crown Court in south London the gang pulled the con trick at four specialist carpet shops.
They also allegedly netted pnds stlg 11,000 worth of goods from a builders’ merchant.
Mr Kennedy said Mitchell, of Forest Hill, south east London, had opened up an account at the Halifax purely to orchestrate the fraud.
She would get banker’s drafts for pnds stlg 50 or pnds stlg 100, which a fellow crook would doctor to make them appear to be worth thousands more.
Mr Kennedy told the jury: ‘A man of Arabic appearance went into C.
John Rare Rugs Ltd, in South Audley Street in the West End.
‘It sells expensive Persian carpets.
The man agreed to pay pnds stlg 40,000 for a 19th century carpet.
‘Payment was going to be made by way of a banker’s draft.
A few days later, he returned to the shop and handed over the draft.
‘The shop had no reason to expect that any wrongdoing had happened, and the owner handed over the carpet.
‘Less than a week later, the shop was contacted by the bank because the draft had been altered and the bank was not going to honour it.
‘
When Mitchell was eventually arrested, she told police she had asked a former boyfriend, a man identified only as ‘Eddie’, for a loan.
She claimed he agreed to give her money in return for getting him some Halifax bank drafts, but has no idea what happened after she handed them over.
Mr Kennedy added: ‘She opened that account to facilitate the scam.
‘The drafts were not genuine at all because they had been forged.
‘
Mitchell, of (22) Haseley End, Tyson Road, Forest Hill, denies conspiracy to defraud between February 28 and March 30 last year.
She also denies five charges of conspiracy to obtain property by deception.
The trial continues.
ends
