Not sure if this one got posted already but it was pretty well hidden on Google.
Proof that Monzo is not just for city dwellers, The benefits of instant notifications and powerful branding make it highly fraud proof for users living in smaller communities.
Another card-finding rapscallion nabbed thanks to Monzo. Also the guy & the police obvs
I wonder how he got the police to come and nab this guy? Is it a Somerset thing?
Living in a big city Iâm pretty certain the police would laugh down the phone if I said my bank card has been used at Pizza Perfecto despite me being in Nandoâs. I donât have experience of reporting such a crime to the police here, however I have been involved in a hit and run and was told that if Iâm not injured I should go to a police station the next day to file a report. Said âbut thereâs a drunk driver speeding the wrong way up a dual carriagewayâ and was shut down with âhow do you know heâs drunk?â.
Yeovil police are known to be very lazy so this surprises me!
Love that is starts with âA Yeovil man who thought it was his lucky dayâŚâ but goes on to say nesr the end he doesnât live in Yeovil Good old Somerset Live.
The magistrates imposed a 12 month conditional discharge on the defendant and ordered him to pay ÂŁ85 costs and a ÂŁ20 victim surcharge.
Is it just me or this sounds like a really good deal even in the rare case you do get caught? No wonder this kind of card fraud is still a thing.
We need stronger penalties for this, and some damages awarded to the victim (who essentially did all the âinvestigationâ by himself). 20ÂŁ is a joke.
Sentences are not prescribed. The magistrate(s) will have taken into account the nature and seriousness of the offence, the amounts involved, the defendantâs guilty plea and apology, his explanation for committing the crime, his mental health, his previous (if any) involvement in the justice system. The ÂŁ20 is not âdamagesâ awarded to the victim.
Itâs not a âgood dealâ â the man still has a criminal conviction. As someone who actually understands how the justice system works, thatâs sounds fair and about right to me.
Please also remember that, although there will be some effect to the cardholder (possibly even psychological), the âvictimâ in this case is Monzo. The cardholder will be covered by the bank and would not have lost any money.
My point was that the sentence really isnât dissuasive. This guy was unlucky and got busted on his first attempt, but had he put some more effort into his mischief (starting by avoiding cards with instant notifications) he couldâve racked up thousands in fraud before being caught (if caught at all).
I wouldâve preferred harsher sentences even for first-time offenders so that even the idea of âhey hereâs a card, letâs go and spendâ doesnât arise.
Assuming the investigation (if there is one at all) manages to uncover and prove he also stole thousands and not just what he took from the card he was caught with.
I would say this kind of fraud should have a few months of jail at a minimum. Would make people like this think twice before doing it.
Isnât fraud defined as lying to get an advantage or gain something you wouldnât otherwise gain should you not be lying?
Do you see any of that in the linked post? What advantage would I gain that I wouldnât otherwise get should I use a real statement, given that I was advocating for printing the exact same information that would be on a real one? The only advantage that I could see was to get access to the account faster (not waiting for a ârealâ one to arrive by post), and I donât think anyone would have a problem with that.
I understand we disagree, but I donât think thereâs a need to mix up totally different things, fraud for the purpose of stealing money, and âfraudâ for the purpose of speeding up bureaucratic nonsense.
I donât think that prisons being full is a good argument for not putting criminals in prison though.
What will a prison sentence do? I expect a lot of neâer-do-wells to not care much about âpaperâ sentences like these while cold hard jail might make them think twice. I know in France a lot of crimes are âpunishedâ with paper sentences like these and it has absolutely no effect; in fact the criminals (mostly young kids with no future and for who the life of crime is normal and expected) are accepting those as a trade-off and consider it a free pass.