Kingston woman to pay back £137k for card fraud (From This Is Local London)

Kingston woman to pay back £137k for card fraud

1:30pm Tuesday 14th April 2009 in

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A Kingston woman has been ordered to pay back £137,000 after her fraud operation was uncovered by police during a murder investigation.

Tharani Satkunananthan, known as Tara, 28, of Revell Road, was sentenced to three years in prison and will now have to repay the money under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Co-defendents Vyon Silvanathan, 28, of Glyn Avenue, Barnet, and Jessica Sohan, 21, previously of Lonsdale Drive, Enfield, were all in on the scam, where bank cards were cloned and unauthorised bank transfers were made.

The three were found out after officers investigating the murder of Douglas Yogarasa on February 6, 2006, searched Sohan’s house in Lonsdale Avenue, Enfield.

The murder has still not been solved.

During the search they found an Adidas holdall in the loft cupboard next to her bedroom, containing £32,570 in cash, 60 counterfeit credit and debit cards awaiting embossing with account details, several blank cards and 02 mobile phone top up cards which had compromised credit card details uploaded on to them.

There was also a chip and PIN machine, data to help track credit and debit cards and the account numbers of more than 300 cards.

Inquiries revealed that account holders had lost significant amounts of money, totalling £60,000 in bank card fraud alone.

Officers also established a bank account had been set up in the name of “A Raj” by Silvanathan.

Satkunananthan had paid a number of unauthorised bank transfers from her employer into a bank account and had company cheques made out to A Raj.

The three were arrested and a trial started on April 16, 2007, at Harrow Crown Court. They were all found guilty.

Detective Chief Inspector Pete Lansdown said: “This case shows that if you chose to make your living through crime not only will you serve a prison sentence, but you will lose all the proceeds as well, in this case crime really does not pay.”