A conman from Perthshire concocted a fraud in which expensive iPhones were bought, replaced in their boxes with worthless items and returned for refund.
One phone was replaced with a bag of sugar and in another con, fake phones were put in the boxes after the real ones were removed.
Kameran Iqbal, 24, of Earn Drive, Tibbermore, near Perth travelled to Alloa and Fife to dupe shop workers.
He appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court and admitted forming a fraudulent scheme to obtain mobile phones with a retail value of £4,547.
The offences took place between November 26 and December 19 2022 at Argos in Alloa and Currys at Halbeath Retail Park, Dunfermline and elsewhere.
Iqbal blamed his mother for not paying him for working in the family business, meaning he was desperate for cash.
The court heard Iqbal’s partner had originally been charged as well but he claimed he was acting alone.
Iqbal recently appeared in court in Paisley for a similar offence and multiple cases have been reported to the police across Scotland between November 26 and December 19 2022, depute fiscal Amy Robertson said.
Replaced phone with bag of sugar
The prosecutor said on November 26 at the Alloa Argos, an iPhone 13 was collected by a female and an American Express card was used for the transaction.
An hour later, the phone was returned.
There was proof of purchase and the package appeared to be sealed so the refund was processed.
Shortly afterwards, a staff member inspected the box and became suspicious.
“Upon opening the box, she discovered there was no iPhone and in its place was a bag of sugar,” said the depute.
Police were contacted, CCTV was seized and checks showed the bank card belonged to Iqbal.
The fiscal said: “American Express confirmed that upon checking the transaction history of this card, it showed multiple transactions of a similar nature – purchasing an item then returning it shortly thereafter for a refund.”
Realistic fakes
On December 13 2022, Iqbal and a woman entered Currys in Dunfermline and he bought two iPhone 14 Pro Max mobile phones.
He gave his name and address and used the same card as in the Alloa incident
30 minutes later he returned them and received a full refund.
On January 3 2023, a Currys staff member received a message within a store managers group chat warning about an ongoing scam in which people were returning phones stating they had “changed their mind”.
As a result, she checked the two returned phones and they were identified as high-quality fakes.
Sentencing deferred
Defence solicitor Shona Westwood said her client is currently unemployed.
She said, “At the time, he was working in the family business and his mother wasn’t paying him.
“He didn’t see any other way out.”
She conceded there was a “fair amount of planning” involved and Iqbal now feels “regretful and embarrassed”.
Sheriff Susan Duff said she was concerned with inconsistencies in Iqbal’s claims about not being fit for unpaid work while he was applying for jobs and deferred sentencing until December 4 for an update on his progress on a court order from Paisley.
She warned him if she was unable to impose unpaid work she may have to impose a custodial term instead.
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