Skimming Romanians
face three years in jail
PHILIPSBURG--Three men from Romania who were caught skimming Windward Islands Bank (WIB) automated teller machines (ATMs) heard the Prosecutor request three-year sentences for them on Wednesday, for having defrauded the bank out of US $102,780.
The men, working for a London-based operation of fellow countrymen, used false bank- and credit cards to steal large amounts of money March 4-10. They stashed the money in suitcases hidden in a French-side hotel room.
It apparently went all a bit too easily, because the men became careless. After having swiped the cards and taken some money, they immediately discarded the cards, dropping them on the spot.
The WIB Security Department launched an investigation after they found 31 false bankcards. Footage of surveillance cameras led to I.P. (31), V.D.B. (20), and V.C.S. (23), who all hail from the same village.
I.P. was arrested at a Simpson Bay ATM location. The other two turned themselves in at the police station two days later.
Prosecutor Jan Bart Develing said various criminal organisations in Romania and Bulgaria were active in credit card fraud. The suspects had said they had not been fully aware of the criminal scope of their activities, but the Prosecutor said they must have been certain that they weren’t on a free holiday in the Caribbean either. He said it was not a coincidence that this large-scale fraud operation had taken place during the Heineken Regatta.
Attorney-at-law Remco Stomp tried to convince the Court to acquit his clients for various reasons. His first argument was that his clients’ arrest had been illegal because they had been arrested by bank security personnel without reasonable grounds for suspicion. He further argued that the search of his clients’ hotel room had been illegal.
Stomp said that in his eyes a three-year prison sentence would be “over the top.” He said his clients had spent 30 days in the police cells. He recommended a considerable suspended prison sentences with lengthy probation periods.
The three Romanians will know their fate in three weeks.
