Conman jailed for global fake holiday scam

Adrian Adam – a member of a London-based Romanian crime syndicate – conned American and Australian holidaymakers into transferring money into a Jersey bank account, in the belief that they were booking luxury apartments in Las Vegas, Florida and Whistler skiing resort in Canada.

As part of the fraud, he replicated legitimate holiday booking websites to lure tourists into making payments into his account.

On Friday, Adam, who pleaded guilty to 29 fraud-related charges, was jailed for two years by the Royal Court.

Outlining the case, Crown Advocate Mathew Jowitt said that the offences began when Adam used a forged Romanian identity card, under the alias of Marian Dumitrache, to open an account at the NatWest bank in Bath Street on 13 August last year.

Once the account was successfully opened, the defendant began to target unwitting holidaymakers by setting up the illegal websites.

Between September and October last year Adam conned five tourists into transferring money totalling £7,800 into the account, which he then laundered to the UK.

While he was committing the internet fraud, the 30-year-old also used multiple identities to deceive Island finance company Cherry Godfrey into loaning him funds which he used to purchase high-end electronic goods from St Helier retailers. He then sold the goods in the UK.

As the criminal activity went on, Adam was joined by accomplice and prostitute Siramon-Illinca Haffner, who was jailed for ten months this summer after admitting one count of obtaining a mobile phone by deception and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The advocate explained that while Adam was committing the online holiday fraud, he travelled back and forth between Jersey and London in an attempt to use false identities to obtain further loans from Cherry Godfrey and set up more bank accounts.

He then used that money and the criminal ID cards to open contracts on a string of iPhones and iPads – worth £3,060 – from Airtel and Jersey Telecom.

Adam made initial deposits for the items, but made no further payments.

Advocate Jowitt called Adam’s method of dishonesty ‘highly original’.

He said: ‘The Crown have found no previous cases in Jersey in which the Island has been used as a base for internet fraud, and in which a reasonably sophisticated and concerted deception on financial institutions was employed as part of a process to obtain electronic devices by deception.’

The advocate added that by committing the internet fraud Adam had risked damaging the Island’s reputation and that he had ‘exploited’ Jersey’s banking system for criminal ends.

‘The defendant was one of a team of fraudsters, operating to a marked degree of sophistication, who also used Jersey’s banking system to launder the proceeds of these frauds through to London where the offenders could withdraw the proceeds in cash.

‘They thus exploited Jersey’s bank system in order to distance themselves from their crimes whilst enjoying the proceeds of those crimes.’

Meanwhile, Advocate Jamie Orchard, defending, said that his client had become involved with crime when he moved away from his home town in Romania and ‘fell in with the wrong crowd’.

The advocate added that the crimes had only involved ‘low sums of money’ and that the offences were not particularly sophisticated in their nature.

Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq said that Adam’s use of Jersey’s bank accounts to commit fraud was the most serious of the aggravating factors.

He said: ‘We believe that the sentence of the court should in part be a deterrent made to deter the use of Jersey’s banking system for criminal purposes.’

Mr Le Cocq was sitting with Jurats Robert Kerley and Charles Blampied.

FRAUDSTER Adrian Adam was a member of a crime gang which the police believe conned a total of 36 victims from the US, Australia, Africa and Europe and South America.

In an attempt to dismantle the gang, the force launched Operation Bilbo in October last year. Officers tracked Adam and fellow gang member Siramona Haffner and the pair were arrested in November last year.

However, despite extensive work to identify and work with the victims, only five were willing to give evidence.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Smith said that the police believed that Haffner, a 27-year-old sex worker, came to the Island with Adam in an attempt to make their business look legitimate.

‘We believe she came as a foil, so that they would appear as a couple coming on holiday to Jersey for a few days,’ he said.

In a statement, the States of Jersey Police said: ‘These convictions send a strong message to criminals that the Island will not tolerate financial crime and that the Joint Financial Crimes Unit work tirelessly with other agencies and jurisdictions to detect money laundering and seize any criminal funds.

‘The courts in Jersey also recognise the serious criminality and this is reflected in the custodial sentences given.’

Det Sgt Smith added that the group was ‘very slick and organised’ and there were two further arrests made in addition to Adam and Haffner in connection with the crimes, however they were released without charge.

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