Charges are expected to be laid soon against four men from the south of the island who were arrested last week in a credit card fraud investigation.
High-placed sources have told St. Lucia News Online that the Major Crimes Unit made the arrests during an operation between Wednesday and Friday.
Reports are that at least three other persons are assisting police with investigations.
Among the persons arrested is a 40-year-old man who was arrested by United Kingdom authorities in September 2014 with help from St. Lucian Customs officers for having equipment used for stealing people’s card details from cash machines.
The man was nabbed shortly after arriving in St. Lucia from Gatwick Airport, according to a report in the Newham Recorder newspaper.
St. Lucian customs officers discovered an ATM skimmer, a device that fits over the card entry slot of a cash machine and steals customer card information, in the man’s luggage. They also found a laptop containing card skimming software. The devices were passed on to officers in the UK who investigate such crimes.
Eventually, he was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the UK banking industry as he was about to board another flight to St Lucia from Gatwick Airport. The Recorder reported that a search of the man’s home “revealed a package containing approximately 100 pre-pay gift cards. These cards, which have a magnetic strip on the back, are commonly used by fraudsters to create counterfeit bank cards using stolen data”.
Officers also found a piece of paper with timings and suspected PINs – thought to be the output from an ATM camera bar where skimming had taken place, according to The Recorder.
He received a 17-month suspended sentence at the Old Bailey on September 22. He was also told to do 100 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £1,000.
DCI Perry Stokes, head of the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit, was quoted by The Recorder as saying: “This fraudster was discovered with all the equipment needed to steal card details and cash from unknown individuals. Thanks to the hard work of our officers, working alongside police in St. Lucia, we were able to prevent British bank customers from becoming fraud victims.”