Card-cloners 'set to steal thousands'
Police smashed an underground card-cloning operation that could have raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds, a court heard.
A six-strong gang of conspirators, including three Bulgarians, planned to duplicate bank cards using hi-tech equipment and then plunder accounts, it is alleged.
A jury at Portsmouth Crown Court has been told the criminal network was uncovered when police raided Michael Baldry's flat in Kings Terrace, Southsea on November 9, last year.
Officers stopped Baldry, 41, and Bulgarian Georgi Gerov as they were about to get into a red Mercedes.
Detectives found items used in the cloning of bank cards in the flat and details of cloned cards on Baldry's computer, the court heard.
During the search, a second Bulgarian, Todor Kovachev, arrived at the flat with a bag containing a card reader and blank cards. Kovachev's partner, Teodora Stoilova, also turned up and was also arrested, the jury was told.
Police then searched a property in Elm Grove, Southsea, where Gerov, 32, Kovachev, 33, and Stoilova, 23, were staying and found a stash of magnetic-strip cards which had been cloned and were ready for use, the court heard.
Prosecutor Iain Wicks told the court that when detectives descended on a business premises owned by Baldry and his friend Philip Williamson at Tipner Wharf they discovered a card cloning device.
Mr Wicks said that that device could be attached to cash points to record account details and pin numbers.
Describing Baldry as having the 'controlling role' in the operation, he added: 'This operation was caught at an early stage. It nevertheless has the hallmarks of a highly organised and closely co-ordinated operation. The profits could have run very quickly into hundreds of thousands of pounds.'
The court heard that further police inquiries led to the discovery of a second card cloning device at a property belonging to a friend of Wayne Preston, an employee of Baldry.
Preston, 39, later claimed that Williamson, 43, had told him to get rid of a package containing the device after Baldry was arrested.
Baldry, Stoilova, from Aberdeenshire, and Williamson, of Gudge Heath Lane, Fareham, and Preston, of Orchard Side, Hunston, near Chichester, all deny conspiracy to steal.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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