Lankan jailed in chip-and-pin fraud in UK

A Sri Lankan illegal immigrant has been sentenced after ripping off hundreds of customers at a petrol station where he worked in Merseyside, England. Murugaiya Selvakumaran, 36, swapped the chip-and-pin machines at a Murco petrol station in Wallasey with card readers which allowed international criminals to copy customers’ cards and make fraudulent withdrawals.

The fraud only came to light towards the end of February 2009 when banks began to tell their clients they were victims of 41,500 pounds of illegal transactions.

In total, 517 credit and debit cards were compromised.

The petrol station, in Leasowe Road, is run by a Sri Lankan family but they were not related to Selvakumaran, who gave them a fake name when he moved to Wirral from Middlesex. Jo Maxwell, prosecuting, told Warrington crown court: “Some 200 customers of the Murco store contacted Merseyside police to let them know that a fraud had taken place.

Selvakumaran, who was assisted at court by a Tamil interpreter, was caught by police in Surrey on an unrelated matter in March.

Courtesy: Liverpool Echo