Johnny Bottles

This goes some way to explaining how the Rathkeale travellers can afford €185,000 cars. Johnny 'Bottles' Sheridan heads up up just one of about 20 crews doing tarmacadam scams all over Europe. The sales pitch starts with: "..we are working on a big motorway project and have some tarmacadam left over that's going to be dumped, but we can use it to surface your driveway for free..."

Read the full story in the Sunday World.

CARBON crooks

Not only are the carousel VAT fraudsters targeting carbon emission credits - so are computer hackers. Emission credits have been stolen and sold to companies who thought it was a legitimate transaction. Read the story here. The latest attack on the emissions-trading market comes after it emerged that up to 90 per cent of the trading could actually be fraudulent. See the Green Fraud post from 5 January.

Fraud and Midweek

Last night I got another chance to go on about fakes, frauds and scams, this time on TV3's Midweek with Colette Fitzpatrick. If you missed it or want to watch it again click here for the TV3 catch-up. Una Dillon from the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) was also on the show talking about how ATM and credit card skimming works. And then there was the shameless plugs again...

FAKE illness

This is another story from the "You Couldn't Make it Up" department. Lisa Hayden-Johnson was jailed for three years last week for pretending her son had a range of series illnesses. She spent welfare benefits, grants and donations from well-wishers thanks to her son's diabetes, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, a neurological condition, a metabolic disorder, food allergies and an intolerance to sunlight. Neighbours got suspicious when they spotted the teenager playing football in the back garden and eating an ice-cream. Read the full story here. If it wasn't so serious it would be funny.

MORE mortgage fraud

Last year banking officials told the Dail Accounts Committee that they were pretty much on top of mortgage fraud and the use of false documents and declarations to get loans. Their optimism was quite surprising. This week yet another Irish solicitor has been struck off over making false loan applications. Mary Miley from County Wicklow got loans worth €1.25 million using her maiden name and fake documents. The Law Society has struck her off and she could now face a criminal prosecution.
In Belfast a welfare fraudster Frances McCluskey used her cash to build up a property empire, borrowing £4 million using fake documents. The Serious and Organised Crime Agency got a High Court order yesterday to seize 41 properties in Belfast and Spain along with paintings and cash held in bank accounts. Both cases highlight how easy it has been to use fake identities and documents to acquire mortgages. No doubt there's more to come.

REAL fakes

Sometimes the fakes are the real thing, but are being passed off as something else. Pictured are euro, turkish lira and thai baht coins. If you ain't quick you might just get one or two of these in your change. I got these from a newsagent I know (with his co-operation). Apologies for the bad photography, but for the record the top coin is a two euro piece while the lira is bottom left and the baht is on the right.

CARD sharks

It's looks like we were right to be paranoid about credit card fraud. A court case in London has laid bare the extent of the black market in stolen personal data. A secret website, DarkMarket, was uncovered when one of it's organisers, Renukanth Subramaniam (pictured), was stung by an undercover FBI agent. Strictly invitation only, users of the website from all over the world, sold and swapped stolen personal details that allowed them to carry out huge frauds. One buyer spent st£250,000 in just six weeks for stolen information. The operation to shut down DarkMarket came after the FBI cracked the ShadowCrew site in the US. They think the site was just one of a 100 they know about, but that hundreds more could exist. Read the full story here in The Guardian.