Man gets jail and caning for $45,000 credit card scam and drug consumption
A man who was involved in a credit card scam amounting to over $45,000 and consumed drugs was sentenced to nine years’ jail and six strokes of the cane on Thursday (31 May).
Gardi Bandi, 40, pleaded guilty in the State Courts to six charges of cheating and one charge of drug consumption. For the drug offence alone, he was given seven years’ jail and six strokes of the cane.
Twelve other cheating charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
Some time last year, Gardi met Prakash Mathivanan, 33, and Malani Prabhakar Naidu, 31, at Timbre restaurant where Gardi was working then, and the trio planned to use stolen credit card details to buy goods and resell them for profit. The offences were committed throughout May last year.
Gardi’s role was to provide Prakash with the credit card details stolen from customers. Prakash agreed to pay Gardi $100 for each set of card details.
Gardi also roped in a worker from another restaurant to take photos of credit cards owned by foreign customers and would pay him $300 for every 10 images taken.
One such credit card was used by Prakash and Malani to buy nearly $3,000 worth of electronic items like keyboards, printers, and vacuum cleaners on the website Qoo10.
In another instance, Gardi got to know the personal secretary of a businessman at an event. Gardi found out that the secretary had details of the businessman’s American Express credit card in her personal organiser. Without the secretary’s knowledge, Gardi took photographs of the details.
Using the stolen details, Prakash bought 21 iPhone sets and three Samsung phones for close to $40,000 and booked rooms in hotels like Grand Hyatt and Raffles Hotel.
The scam was uncovered after an American Express staff called the businessman about the suspicious transactions on 25 May.
Gardi was subsequently arrested on 9 June 2017. A urine test conducted after his arrest showed that he had consumed methamphetamine, or “Ice”.
In sentencing, District judge Jasvender Kaur said Gardi had made no restitution in the cheating offences and had continued to steal more credit card details to maintain the scam.
For each cheating offence, Gardi could have been jailed up to three years’, or fined, or both. For his drug offence, he was facing a maximum of 13 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane due to his prior drug conviction.
