Stolen credit cards used to buy cigarettes

A shop owner who used stolen credit cards to buy £13,000 worth of cigarettes, alcohol and energy drinks from cash and carry stores in the region has been given a suspended prison term.

Fowsul Sulleman bought items from stores in Kingswinford and West Bromwich.

But the goods were purchased using stolen Virgin credit cards and Sulleman, who owns the Venkat off-licence in Stourbridge Road, Dudley, was caught when trying to pay for items using a card belonging to a woman.

Prosecutor Miss Rhiannon Jones told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Sulleman used a stolen card to buy £4,828 worth of cigarettes from the Booker cash and carry in Kingswinford on October 28 last year.

Staff became suspicious when he attempted to use a different card to buy a further £3,500 worth of goods, Miss Jones explained yesterday.

Sulleman was detained by staff at the store and when police officers arrived, they discovered one of the stolen cards had earlier been used by Sulleman to buy £8,299 worth of cigarettes, alcohol and energy drinks from the Hyperama wholesale shop in West Bromwich.

The court heard that 39-year-old Sulleman, of Wembley, London, had a previous conviction for credit card fraud.

Mr Justin Jarmola, defending, explained his client lived in Dudley during the week to operate his store and in Wembley at weekends.

He said that the Sri Lankan national had pleaded guilty to the two offences of fraud at the first opportunity and wanted to make payments to reimburse Virgin.

Giving Sulleman a six-month prison term suspended for two years, Judge John Warner told the defendant that the frauds were aggravated by his previous fraud conviction.

Sulleman was told to do 120 hours unpaid work and make compensation payments of £300 per month.

Earlier this year, it emerged that criminals were resorting to old-fashioned cheque and telephone scams as fraud losses on UK credit and debit cards reached a 10-year low.