5/9/2018 Judge's fears after hearing cash machine fraud gang case | Daily Mail Online

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'I will never use an ATM machine again Site Web Enter your search

with such con idence': Judge tells of ADVERTISEMENT

fears after convicting Romanian

fraudster of distributing cashpoint
skimming devices around the world
from a garden shed in Essex
Romanian gang made 'skimmers' to take cash machine users' details
One of the masterminds has gone on the run but was convicted in his absence
Court hears machines they made were shipped to fraudsters around the world
Judge tells court of this fears about using a cash point after hearing the case 

By RICHARD SPILLETT, CRIME CORRESPONDENT FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 17:06, 7 February 2018 | UPDATED: 17:45, 7 February 2018

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A judge said he may never use a cash machine again after hearing how a Romanian
fraudster sold devices for skimming bank cards.

Alexandru Sovu, 39, designed 'skimmers' and ATM fronts, which were sold to
criminals in New York, Jamaica, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Ghana and the
Philippines, in a £3million scam.

The 39-year-old - whose last known address was in Reading - was convicted of fraud
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charges and sentenced in his absence after he went on the run and is believed to be Daily Mail Daily Mail
in China or Romania.
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Sovu was one of a gang of fraudsters sentenced over the scam. Romanian crime
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boss Ionel Baluta and Andrei Baloui were jailed over the scam. Anca Fuioaga was @dailymailuk Daily Mail
convicted of fraud charges while Baluta's wife Paula Cioaca was cleared of any

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5363729/Judges-fears-hearing-cash-machine-fraud-gang-case.html 1/44
5/9/2018 Judge's fears after hearing cash machine fraud gang case | Daily Mail Online

involvement. DON'T MISS

The royals as you've
Blackfriars Crown Court heard Baluta never seen them before:
and Baloui built the skimmers in a back Amateur snaps of
Charles, Diana, Meghan
garden shed in Colchester, Essex. Sovu and Kate unearthed
from fans' attics across
worked on software to help fraudsters the country
use stolen data and Fuioaga was said to
have met up with buyers. Kim Kardashian
exhibits her perfect
proportions - as well as
her control Spanx - in
high-cut yellow gown at
Business Of Fashion
dinner

Tamara Ecclestone
shows off her figure in
colourful bikinis as she
enjoys EIGHTH holiday
of the year with
daughter Sophia
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Jada Pinkett Smith

Alexandru Sovu is an internationally wanted regrets dating Will
fraudster who made 'skimmers' which steal Smith when he was
bank machine users' details. He operated in married in tear-filled talk
with ex-wife
the UK but is now thought to be in Romania or Expressed regret over
China dating him in 1995

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her legs in a low-cut
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she clutches daughter
Kim's Business Of
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boldly braless in a
jacket slashed to the
navel as she joins her
sisters at magazine
launch party

Meghan Markle's dad

Thomas - who will give
her away in 10 days but
STILL hasn't met Harry -
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about the wedding at an
internet cafe
Sovu was convicted alongside Anca Fuioaga (left). Paula Cioaca (right), the wife of another
fraud gang member, was cleared of any involvement
Khloe Kardashian hires
nanny for 'support and

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5/9/2018 Judge's fears after hearing cash machine fraud gang case | Daily Mail Online

Prosecutor Michael Shaw told the court: 'What's been designed is a form of company' as she cares
for newborn daughter
interception called a 'skimmer'. So when you put your card into a cash machine or a True
Star needs extra support
London transport ticket machine you need to be alert because what criminals have after Tristan drama
designed is a method of catching the data as you put your card in and wait.
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'We are talking about millions of pounds of fraud if you can get the data that's
contained on this small piece of plastic.'

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Judge Rajeev Shetty said: 'I know for one that I will never use an ATM machine again
with such con idence.'

Sovu has been missing since last Thursday and is believed to be in either Romania or
China. The court heard it was likely he had forged new identity documents and is
carrying on with his money-making scheme.

Mr Shaw told the court: 'He's a very industrious and intelligent man but he is also a
thoroughly dishonest man.

'Without the technology Mr Sovu has designed and developed, much of the crime
we will hear in this trial could not have happened.'

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on PDA with beau Sam
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The couple were kissing
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Ionel Baluta (left) and Andrei Baloui  manufactured the fraud machines from a shed in Essex Reputation Tour
Eectrified in Arizona

After he was arrested on similar charges back in 2010, Sovu moved to China, and
appointed Fuioaga as his 'UK representative'. Helen Flanagan
displays blossoming
bump in one shoulder
The prosecutor added: 'This was a seven day a week, eight hours a day operation. jumpsuit as she leaves
hotel for dinner with
friends
'We would suggest that Baluta was operating a crime with other people from various
other criminal networks all over the world.'
TV presenter Julia
Bradbury, 47, shows off
The gang was inally stopped in 2016 after British Transport Police o icers identi ied her legs after £360 jab
suspects interfering with rail ticket machines. that makes 'quite ugly'
varicose veins
disappear
Posed nude

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