Jail terms for Lankans behind $40,000 ATM scam in Australia

Karan Nada	Rasanajagam

Three refugees who used credit card details skimmed in the UK to steal thousands from Australian banks have been sentenced.

All three were handed jail terms, but a Victorian judge has suspended the prison terms for two of the Sri Lankan men.

The global fraud scheme involved card numbers stolen in Britain being emailed to Australia and encoded onto blank Coles Myer and Crown cards, which were then used to withdraw cash at ATMs.

During the trial, the court heard more than 1,500 credit and debit card details were stolen in the scheme to fleece major banks.

Victoria Police seized a computer at an Endeavour Hills address and found 27 draft emails sent from England, with PINs and matching account details stolen from people in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. Karan Nada, 42, of Endeavour Hills, Ramesh Rasanajagam, 32, of Hallam, and Udayakumar Vivekanandan, 32, all pleaded guilty. The group withdrew $40,000, made up 317 fake cards and tried to steal another $70,000 across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT in 2008. Courtesy: Herald Sun