From the "Really?" file: A Romanian national with ties to a well-organized criminal gang recently pled guilty in a U.K. court to four counts of fraud in a skimming operation that netted data and PINs for 9,000 bankcards. The judge said he would consider all sentencing options, but advised the fraudster that he could be facing jail time.
According to a BBC account, British police estimate that Leonid Rotaru, 32, stole bankcard information worth as much as £3 million ($4.8 million). Before his arrest for the crime, he was already on the run for similar crimes he previously committed.
His eventual arrest came as the result of a tip from an ATM user at a Tesco store about a possible skimming device. Police nabbed Rotaru as he returned to remove the skimming device, which CCTV footage showed he had installed earlier in the day.
"This was well-organized, well-orchestrated and with good criminal connections," Barry Douglas of the Avon and Somerset police economic crime unit told the BBC.
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