Five men have gone on trial accused of laundering cash from a Liverpool FC tickets scam.
The group are alleged to have allowed two fraudsters, who have already admitted the scam, to use their bank accounts to receive money from unsuspecting customers.
Liverpool Crown Court was told the group then allegedly withdrew the money and passed it on to Craig O’Donohue, 29, and Paul Murgatroyd, 28.
Robin Reis, 66, of South Drive, Wavertree; Daniel Kercher, 19, of Frampton Road, Walton; Jack Clarke, 18, of Afton, Widnes and a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons all deny charges of converting criminal property, commonly known as money laundering.
O’Donohue, of Dewsbury Road, and Murgatroyd, of Breck Road, both in Anfield have pleaded guilty to selling forged tickets between September 2014 and February this year.
Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, set up to investigate internet fraud, received information about a ticketing scam involving the selling website Craigslist.
He said: “The fraud was quite straightforward. Tickets would be advertised on Craigslist. A customer would contact the number on the website and be given the bank details into which the price of the tickets was to be paid. Once the money was in the account it would be immediately withdrawn at an ATM using a cashcard.
“The only problem was that obviously sooner or later one or more of the customers would report the fraud, as a result of which the bank would be notified and the bank account closed.
“Thus the fraudsters could only use one bank account for a relatively short period of time before having to move on to another.”
He said the case was assigned to Merseyside Police due to the high number of bank accounts located in the Merseyside area.
An undercover investigation was launched into ticket sales on Craigslist by Merseyside Police, led by Detective Sergeant Robert Viney.
Mr Gibson said: “The police were able to identify the bank accounts into which the victims were made, but not the organisers of the fraud.
“Accordingly they set up an operation whereby undercover officers sought to purchase tickets. As a result the suppliers of the forged tickets were identified as Paul Murgatroyd and Craig O’Donoghue.
The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, Liverpool Crown Court. File picture. Photo by Ian Cooper
“When their homes were searched blank pro forma tickets belonging to LFC, printers and other items used in the fraud were discovered.”
The jury heard all the defendants in the case accept their accounts were used to convert criminal property, but deny they knew what the fraudsters were up to.
Mr Gibson said: “The crucial issue is as to knowledge; did any or all of these defendants allow their accounts to be used by other people in the manner described, knowing, or at the very least suspecting, that that the money going into the account was as a result of criminal activity or did all this take place without their knowledge, after their bank cards pin and account details had been stolen from them.”
The court heard all but one of the defendants claimed their pin numbers had been stolen.
However the 17-year-old said he had agreed to allow a friend’s wages to be paid into his account after being told the friend was unable to use his own bank account.
Kercher is alleged to have converted £1,730 of criminal cash; Reiss £615 in cash; Wright £1,797 in cash; Clarke £1,272 in cash and the 17-year-old £995 in cash.
The jury heard Frances Ellicott, 23, of Farrow Road, Walton, Emily Bakewell, 20, of Fulbeck, Widnes, Kieran King, 22, of Snowberry Road, West Derby and Stephanie Oliver, 33, of Bedford Road, Walton, have all pleaded guilty to converting criminal property.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/