£80,000 fraud

A London man has been sentenced to three years in prison after an £80,000 fraud, using false passports and identity cards. The court case is believed to be one of the first of its kind and warnings are being issued to other online gamblers that use false identities in order to play at online gambling sites.

Prosecutors told the court how Andrei Osipau (35) made nearly £80,000 from online gambling by using fraudulent passports, identity cards and false utility bills in order to open a number of online gambling accounts. The court heard how he also used internet payment organisations to transfer the criminal proceeds from the online betting accounts to open bank accounts under false names.

It seems that Osipau failed to think through the crime and scam was picked up on 26th February 2011, when one online gambling operator received two UK passports with different names but the same picture. Following a joint investigation by detectives from the Metropolitan Police Gambling Unit, Project Amberhill, and the UK Gambling Commission he was arrested.

While the accused had tried to mask his IP address to cover his identity and location this failed to deter the Police. Following a raid on his house the Police uncovered more than 5,000 scans of passports, identity cards, utility bills and bank statements from people all over the world.

The Southwark Crown Court sentenced Osipau to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud, eight counts on possession of articles for use in fraud and one count of transferring criminal property.

Detective Inspector Ann-Marie Waller, the head of the Met’s Gaming Unit commented: “This joint investigation with the Gambling Commission demonstrates the Met’s commitment to combating high tech organised crime. The sentence imposed by the judge today should deter anyone considering committing crime involving stolen or compromised identities.”