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Preston posties are accused of online scam

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A pair of Preston postmen have gone on trial accused of laundering money from international online fraud and blackmail scams.

Shaker Javaid and Alex Stocks, who met while working for the Royal Mail in Preston, allegedly set up bank accounts which were used to handle cash paid by victims of a string of international swindles.

The pair’s involvement came to light after overseas students at Exeter University were tricked out of deposits for accommodation which did not exist.

Police then uncovered an international web of extortion and deception in which tens of thousands of pounds were allegedly laundered by the two friends, Exeter Crown Court was told.

The entire network was investigated by police in Devon after foreign students arriving for the new academic year were conned out of large deposits for accommodation.

The court heard most of the money was untraceable, but some of the students had paid by bank transfer and these were tracked to a network of bank accounts in Preston.

Javaid and Stocks controlled the bank accounts which were in the names of companies called Flash claims ltd and Global Supplies.

Inquiries showed cash from internet scams all around the world had been channelled through the accounts before being withdrawn in cash.

The victims came from as far away as China and Germany and some were forced to transfer cash after online threats were made against their families. The sums involved were often very large, with one victim paying £30,776 and Javaid transferring £56,266 from one account to another at one stage.

The operation ran from 2008 to 2012, when it was closed down by the police. Javaid, 32, of Albert Terrace, and Stocks, 30, of Birkett Drive, Ribbleton, deny conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime. Stocks also denies one count of enabling the retention of the proceeds of crime and Javaid denies six charges of retaining or transferring proceeds of crime.

Mary McCarthy, prosecuting, said:”These men first came to the attention of the police in Exeter in 2009 after a number of students booked and paid deposits for accommodation. When they arrived here in Exeter they found they had been fooled and conned and the accommodation they paid for was not available.

“Most payments were made through Moneygram, which had the advantage to the fraudsters of being very difficult to trace but in two cases students had problems with their banks and asked to pay by electronic transfer.

“They were sent an email with bank details for an account in the name of Flashclaims Ltd which had been set up by Javaid and opened in the name of that company.”

Miss McCarthy said police gained access to the account and found it had been used for other international online frauds and crimes.

Javaid controlled two accounts in the name of Flashclaims ltd and Stocks was the sole signatory on another called Global Supplies.

The amounts which passed through them varied from as little as £343 to as much as £30,776, which was paid by a woman in Germany who was threatened and blackmailed over the internet.

Miss McCarthy said: “We cannot say they were contacting victims but they provided the means by which the proceeds could be laundered. Their accounts received the money which was transferred.”

She said Javaid told police he was running a claims management company and an online car parts dealership and was taking money out in cash to pay suppliers.

Stocks told police he was asked to set up the account by his former workmate Javaid and had no idea where the money came from or was going.

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Postmen say they were conned into £1.3m Exeter Uni student fraud plot

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A pair of postmen have denied running a £1.3 million money laundering scam and told a jury they were victims of the plot rather than members of it.

Shaker Javaid said he believed he was acting as a factoring service for a successful international car parts business and had no idea the huge sums passing through his account came from fraud and blackmail.

His fellow postman Alex Stocks said he had been asked to set up an account by Javaid but had no idea what it was used for and his only role was to take out money and give it to his friend.

The two men are on trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of conspiracy to launder the proceeds of a string on complex online frauds.

They were caught after students arriving at Exeter and Brighton Universities discovered they had been swindled out of large sums they had transferred to Britain to pay deposits for top-grade accommodation.

Some of the payments were traced to three company accounts run by the two men in Preston and police inquiries then showed these had also been used in international racketeering, fraud and extortion.

The accounts channelled more than £1.3 million pounds and specific transfers matched sums as high as £77,000 obtained through online frauds.

The alleged victims included a German woman who was blackmailed out of £25,000, and students from China, Greece and India who were targeted by the rental scam.

The prosecution say money from the online frauds was paid into the accounts in Preston of companies called Flashclaims ltd and Global Supplies of which the men were the sole signatories.

Javaid, aged 32, of Albert Terrace, and Stocks, aged 30, of Birkett Drive, Ribbleton, both Preston, deny conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime. Stocks also denies one count of enabling the retention of the proceeds of crime and Javaid denies six charges of retaining or transferring proceeds of crime.

Javaid said he set up Flashclaims as a genuine claims management company after taking a year off from his job as a postman in 2009.

He said at first it went well because it offered a personal service to victims of car accidents, taking their vehicles to be fixed, providing courtesy cars, and helping sort out insurance paperwork.

He told the jury that it failed because of too much competition and he then went into business with an entrepreneur called Rais Mohammed after meeting him at a technology fair in Norway.

He said Mohammed told him he ran an online car parts shop selling specialist stock online all around the world and needed a bank account for incoming payments.

Javaid said he agreed to provide the service for a two per cent fee and had no idea any of the money came from fraud. He generated invoices to match the payments in the name of Auto Transporti, which he believed to be Mohammed’s genuine business.

He withdrew money in cash and paid to Mohammed, who came to Preston to pick it up from him.

He said:”I had no knowledge of any frauds. I was never involved in transferring any money I thought was dishonest. I feel defrauded myself. I was unaware of people being blackmailed or defrauded.”

Stocks said he knew Javaid because they worked together for many years at the Preston sorting office and he set up the Global Supplies account as a favour to him.

He said he played no part in the running of the account and his only involvement was taking out money in cash and taking it to Javaid who was waiting in a car outside.