ID theft ring members jailed

Three men have been jailed for up to six years for their partsin running an identity theft ring which netted them millions ofpounds.

The true scale of the operation will never be known because oneof the gang managed to trip a switch while handcuffed which wipedor encrypted all records of their past activity.

Anton Dolgov was a ringleader of the gang and was sentenced tosix years in prison at Harrow Crown Court in London. Dolgov is theformer head of the Moskovsky Gorodskoi Bank, or the Moscow CityBank. Aleksei Kostap was sentenced to four years in jail.

Members of the gang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud,obtain services by deception acquire, use and possess criminalproperty and conceal, disguise, convert, transfer or removecriminal property.

The gang created false identities and stole credit card detailsand then bought expensive goods, including top of the rangeelectronics, which they resold on eBay, according to theprosecution case.

Police raided the gang's premises and arrested some of themembers, including Kostap. While handcuffed, Kostap leaped up andflicked a switch which triggered the deletion of information ondatabases and the encryption of other records.

That flick drew a veil over more than 10 years of activity,police said, and destroyed vital evidence."It is quite clear thatthe total amount of money defrauded will probably never be known,”said David Hewitt of the Crown Prosecution Service. “Theseconspirators were prolific identity creators running an organizedbusiness.”

The raid was conducted by the Serious and Organised Crime Squad,which was unable to break the gang's encryption. They were able totrace three years' worth of activity, and found that the gang hadmade £750,000 worth of transactions between 2003 and 2006.

The police believe the gang has been operating since the mid1990s, so estimate that millions of pounds were taken over thewhole period. It targeted people in the US and Spain as well as theUK, said police.

A third gang member, Romanos Vasilauskas, was jailed for 18months and police said that they are still looking for a MrKaliusaar, and have a warrant for his arrest.