A man has been jailed following a string of high value frauds in Manchester which targeted amongst others former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini and striker David Silva.
Jonathon Davies,56, of no fixed address has been jailed for three counts of fraud by false representation at Manchester Crown Court, after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.
The court was told that between 10 September 2015 and 7 October 2015, two victims reported a total of £112,000 being fraudulently taken from their accounts via a series of withdrawals and purchases.
Before both frauds took place, the bank took calls from someone purporting to be the two existing customers, requesting new debit cards, a credit card and pin numbers for each.
They passed all security questions and the new cards and pin numbers were sent out to Davies via post.
Over the course of several hours on 22 September 2015, Davies made five withdrawals of £4,850 from one of the customers’ accounts at branches around Greater Manchester.
Between 4 October 2015 and 6 October 2015, 22 withdrawals totalling £92,700 were taken from the second victim’s account at a number of branches across Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
On 7 October 2015, he walked into Goldsmith’s jewellers in the Trafford Centre and attempted to buy a watch worth £26,400 using one of the victim’s cards.The transaction was declined.
Officers launched an investigation and both victims were reimbursed by the bank.
Davies was sentenced to one year and eight months for each count of fraud by false representation, which will run concurrently, plus an additional 49 days.
Detective Sergeant David Henshall of GMP’s City of Manchester Team, said: “Davies showed extreme audacity throughout his illegitimate spending spree, purporting to be other people, defrauding them out of thousands of pounds.
“He will now spend almost two years behind bars, unable to continue his deceitful and dishonest ways.
“Fraud can and does have devastating consequences and those who benefit at the demise of others, like Davies, will be brought to justice.”
