Mobile scam cost phone giant £4.5m

A LEADING mobile phone company lost nearly £4.5 million when it was victim to a sophisticated global premium phone-line scam, a court heard.

Five men are facing sentencing for conspiracy to defraud after stolen identities were used to obtain mobile phones.

Sim cards from the phones were tested on handsets and then sent overseas, where premium rate lines were acquired, Southwark Crown Court in London was told yesterday.

The cards were used to make multiple calls to lines generating “substantial” bills for 02, the court heard.

Three men for the south-east of England, Mohammad Butt, 42, of Forest Gate, London, Abrar Arshad, 35, of Rochford, Essex, and Nikhil Jamsandekar, 33, of Forest Gate, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud.

Two other men from the West Midlands, Abiola Salami, 30, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, and Ade James, 25, of Queensbury, Birmingham, also admitted conspiracy to defraud.