York identity fraudster ordered to pay £17,000 or face three more years in jail
A YORK GRADUATE who stole £30,000 from a University professor has been ordered to pay back £17,365 or face a 12 month extension to his sentence.
Joseph Ashby stole £45,835 altogether through identity theft by stealing other people’s credit card details and using them over the internet. In April he pleaded guilty to seven counts of deception and four of transferring criminal property, and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Sultan Barakat, a Politics professor and neighbour of Ashby, only realised he had been a victim of identity theft after returning home from holiday and finding a “nightmare postbag” of payment demands and solicitor’s letters, including one for a £20,000 loan.
Ashby also took our two credit cards in his name which he maxed out to the limit. He was unavailable for further comment on the decision.
Judge Peter Benson, who imposed the fine at York Crown Court in July, ruled that the fine will be payed to dealforfree.co.uk, an internet auction site who lost £23,000.
The amount will force Ashby to get rid of all his disposable income. This includes two warehouses full of electronic equipment he fraudently purchased and e will also be made to pay £9,000 of his own money, the exact amount he had at the time of his arrest.
The fine was imposed as a result of new legislation brought in to force criminals to pay back any profits made illegally.
The news was welcomed by John Bainbridge, a financial investigator for North Yorkshire Police: “It’s good to see the courts clamping down on identity theft and issuing these orders. This is a stark warning to others: ‘You cannot get away with it.’”
Ashby lived a life of luxury for 6 months, spending most of the money he gained on drinking and gambling and also set up 140 different accounts on gambling websites using stolen details.
When sentencing him, Judge Paul Hoffman told Ashby: “It is disturbing that one can obtain other people’s identities and credit card details so easily. I have no doubt that had you not been apprehended when you were, you would have continued.”
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