3 of gang held for credit card fraud

MUMBAI: They shopped to their heart���s content, picking up expensive mobile phones, gold chains and even daily grocery. What, however, made the purchases unusual was that the buyers were making them with someone else���s credit card.

The Bhayander police arrested three members of a gang, all friends, who made purchases using a credit card that did not belong to them. Two of their associates, including the mastermind, Sandeep Pednekar , were absconding.

The matter came to light when Soni Shetty (32), a resident of Bangur Nagar in Goregaon , received a call from American Express informing her about purchases���worth a staggering Rs 2.97 lakh���made using her credit card between April 16 and April 26. It was then that Shetty, who had not bought anything during that period, realised that she had lost her credit card. She lodged a complaint with the Goregaon police.

The bank statement showed that the card was first swiped at a mall in Bhayander (W) on April 16. Most of the purchases after that took place in Vasai and Kandivli. A police team started visiting the shops from where the goods were bought.

During one such visit, a shopkeeper at a mall in Kandivli (W) informed the police about receiving a call from a person using the card. The two mobile numbers used to make the calls were provided to the police.

While the first number was traced to a fictitious address, the second one led the cops to one Bhavesh Lakhani (26), a resident of Vasant Galaxy in Vasai. Lakhani told the police that the credit card was given to him by Anand Patil (35), a resident of Panchal Nagar, Vasai. The cops recovered goods worth Rs 27,000 bought by Lakhani using Shetty���s card.

The police arrested Patil, who provided them with the name of Wasim Mohammed Ali Sayyed (26). Sayyed and Pednekar had shopped in a mall at Bhayander where their images were captured on the CCTV. While Sayeed was arrested, Pednekar , also a Vasai resident, managed to escape. Mukesh Surve, another accomplice, also managed to escape.

The arrested men were not able to say where the credit card was stolen from. Shetty, too, told the police she had no idea when her card had been flicked. According to the police , the men used to lay their hands on credit cards and shop for expensive gifts. They would call up the shops where they used the card on some pretext or the other to ensure that they were not caught. They used mobile numbers carrying fake addresses.

The police recovered goods worth Rs 75,000 from them.