The final member of a scamming gang which targeted more than a dozen businesses in the Lake District and elsewhere in Cumbria, has been jailed by a judge.
A four-strong group of fraudsters travelled from the Manchester area in late January 2020.
Over the course of several days, using bank card transaction receipts stolen from outlets nationwide, they duped staff at hotels, restaurants, a West Cumbria motorcycle dealership and businesses in Kendal.
Ringleader Sonia Malhi was helped by her teenage daughter as card numbers were entered manually on to payment machines while others used distraction techniques.
The audacious fraud was valued at around £13,700 with the crooks splashing out on luxury hotel rooms and expensive bottles of champagne, while unwarranted sizeable refunds were also requested. Further attempts which would have made that total higher were unsuccessful.
Among the businesses targeted, in the Keswick area, were the included the Lodore Falls, Skiddaw and Glaramara hotels, Bank Tavern and Star of Siam restaurant.
Malhi was jailed for her role in the offending by a judge at Carlisle Crown Court early last year. Daughter Tia and another male accomplice were sentenced but spared prison in separate hearings later in the year.
And at the crown court today, 32-year-old Reece McDonagh became the final gang member to be punished after he admitted conspiracy to commit fraud.
“This defendant’s role was to distract the merchant,” said prosecutor Julian Goode.
McDonagh, of Stretford Road, Trafford, Manchester, was said to have 15 offences on his criminal record.
This included handling stolen goods having been found in possession of a Range Rover Evoque and identity items pinched during the burglary of a Manchester United footballer’s home.
For that handling crime he received a two-year suspended prison sentence in July, 2019.
Judge Nicholas Barker heard of the defendant’s troubled upbringing, that his partner was expecting a baby next week and how he had since distanced himself from the other scammers.
But because McDonagh had breached his suspended within just six months, the judge imposed an immediate 14-month total sentence.
“I identify this as a sophisticated method of fraud. It was determined. It was deliberate,” said Judge Barker.
