Nelson man led the high life on stolen credit cards

8:00pm Sunday 5th October 2008

A 19 year old used credit card details he obtained while working for a mail order company to live the high life, staying at hotels and ordering cash.

Blackburn magistrates heard the Nelson teenager carried out nine transactions at hotels in Langho, Whalley, Preston, Bury and Bradford using three different credit cards.

Kamar Ilyas, of Lomeshaye Road, Nelson, pleaded guilty to three charges of fraudulently making false representations to book hotel rooms and get cash back and asked for six similar offences to be taken into consideration. He was remanded on bail for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Two of the charges related to Mitton Fold at Langho where Ilyas booked a room on August 13 and got £95 cash back. Two days later he booked another room and got another £95 cash back and at the same time he booked a room at the Swan in Whalley where he got £150 cash back.

Claire Grant, prosecuting, said the offences to be taken into consideration included the Park Hotel, Preston, the Red Lion and the Old Mill in Bury and the Sporting Lodge, Bradford.

The charges related to a credit card belonging to a lady who had used it to buy a pair of shoes for her husband from a mail-order company in Barrowford where Ilyas had once worked.

Mrs Grant said: “In fact he used the credit card details of several customers to fund his activities.”

Nick Dearing, defending, said Ilyas had been a man of no previous convictions until entering his guilty pleas in court.

“He is a full time student at Burnley College studying to become a social worker and it remains to be seen how this conviction will affect his future,” said Mr Dearing.

He said while working at the Barrowford company Ilyas had found a piece of paper on which three people’s credit card details had been written.

“He had put that to one side until the commission of these offences,” said Mr Dearing. “He is a decent young man and he recognises there is no excuse for what he has done. He says that in a way it was a relief to be arrested because it enables him to put the whole shameful episode behind him.

“He is terrified of what affect this will have on his parents in the community and it is safe to say this is a young man who has never offended before and never will again.”