An old story, but still interesting.



Part 1: The Crime (Apr. 2005)

Police arrested 36 people yesterday over a multi-million-pound chequebook scam involving Royal Mail workers.


Those detained are believed to be members of a gang suspected of stealing chequebooks sent through the post and using them to obtain money from their victims' bank accounts.
An investigation, codenamed Operation Bangor, was launched by Barnet Police in north London after more than 1,500 chequebooks were reported missing.


Householders complained that cheques ranging from £800 to £1,200 were being cashed from books they had never received. The chequebooks had been sent in the post but had never arrived.

The fraudsters targeted wealthy residents in the Golders Green area of north-west London, where up to £5 million is thought to have been stolen.


Detectives carried out further investigations in Surrey, Kent, Cambridgeshire, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Manchester.


Yesterday more than 400 Metropolitan Police officers were involved in dawn raids at addresses across the country in what was one of the biggest operations of its kind.
One of the men arrested worked for the Royal Mail at a north London depot. He is alleged to have stolen the chequebooks and passed them on to the gang to be paid into legitimate and bogus accounts, Scotland Yard said.

The scale of the fraud is thought to be around £20 million nationally.


The Barnet Borough Commander, Chief Supt Mark Ricketts, who led the operation, said: "This was a highly organised and disciplined gang."


A Royal Mail spokesman said yesterday:

"We take any threat to the security of the mail with the utmost seriousness. It underlines Royal Mail's commitment to the security of the mail and its zero tolerance to crime.

"The majority of our people are scrupulously honest and take pride in delivering the mail safely. The operation demonstrates that people who abuse their position of trust can expect to be caught."

Part 2: The Conviction (Dec. 2005)


An asylum seeker who masterminded a £20 million stolen cheque and credit card fraud while working as a postman was facing a lengthy jail sentence yesterday.

Follow up:

Dido Mayue-Belezika, 34, intercepted chequebooks and credit cards at the north London sorting office where he worked, passing them on to his brother-in-law who directed a gang of 220 people to steal millions from unsuspecting account holders across Britain.


At London's Harrow Crown Court, the married father of four, of Camden, north London, yesterday admitted 12 counts of theft between April 2004 and April this year, although police believe the fraud may have spanned up to three years.


He also pleaded guilty to 13 offences of using stolen credit cards and asked for 60 similar charges to be considered.


He is not expected to be sentenced until Friday, although he appeared in court yesterday for the beginning of a so-called Newton hearing to determine the extent of his admitted guilt.


The court heard how the gang, using a vast array of genuine and bogus accounts, managed to stay "under the radar" by using only two cheques at a time from each chequebook.


They stole over £5 million from 1,300 residents in London's Golders Green area alone.


The Congolese national masterminded the racket from his council home where he enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle, spending tens of thousands of pounds on designer clothes and shoes.


But he was always careful not to arouse suspicion at his £250-a-week job and would carry out his rounds in a second-hand Fiat Punto.


However, when on his spending sprees he regularly drove to London's most fashionable night spots in a top-of-the-range Mercedes Jeep and dressed in £1,000 suits and hand-crafted engraved Berluti shoes worth £1,200.


He also had up to £40,000 in his bank account at any one time, while a safety deposit box he and his brother-in-law shared contained a further £125,000 in various currencies as well as a collection of Rolex and Omega watches worth further tens of thousands.


Investigators also found evidence of thousands more chequebooks believed to have been intercepted from sorting offices across the country.


The court heard that one Tyne and Wear widower lost an insurance payout sent to him by the Prudential in Stirling, Scotland, after his wife's death.


Mayue-Belezika's criminal empire finally ended in a series of synchronised arrests across the country codenamed Operation Bangor.



Source: The Telegraph