Credit card fraud :

Romanians debarred from re-entering Sri Lanka

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

The two Romanian nationals, Preethru Marius and Gregory Edwards who were indicted by the Attorney General with withdrawing money from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in Wellawatte by using fake credit cards last year pleaded guilty to the charges before the High Court Judge Colombo, Kumudini Wickremasinghe and were sentenced to a suspended jail term of five years and fined Rs. 80,000 each, Police Media Spokesman, SP Ajith Rohana told the Sunday Observer.

He said the judge ordered the suspects to repay Rs. 165,000 which they had withdrawn from the ATM and ordered the Commissioner of Immigration and Emigration to deport the suspects forthwith and not allow them to re-enter the country.

The judge commended Inspector B.A.N. Priyadharshna of the CID who investigated the credit card fraud.

The fraud came to light following a complaint lodged by three customers that various sums of money had been withdrawn from their bank accounts without their knowledge. Bank officials on investigating the complaint found that someone had withdrawn cash by using a secret ATM code.

When the matter was reported to the CID, they downloaded images from the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) of the banks and saw two foreign men and a woman at an Automated Teller Machine.

The men were seen taking measurements of the ATM while the woman kept watch. A few hours later another man walked in and fitted a device to the ATM and walked away. The sleuths kept a close watch on the ATM for three days before the arrest was made.

The CID is also investigating another fraud where a manager of a petrol filling station in Colombo had improvised fake credit cards of customers who called over at his filling station in collaboration with a man from Wattala.

The suspects have been remanded, police said.