A mail fraudster’s £9,600 bank swindle was exposed by a vigilant Port Talbot postman – commended by a Crown Court judge - when jailing the identity thief for six months.
Italian conman Cosimo Melis, 35, of Havelock Road, Bruce Grove, Tottenham, was the front man for a mail diversion scam aimed at seizing personal banking details and fleecing victims via London branches.
Post Office sorting offices in Port Talbot and Windsor Road, Neath, Wales (pictured) were told by a bogus female caller with a foreign accent that a dangerous gas leak at the addresses meant mail could not be delivered as normal.
Jobless barman Melis then turned up with a bogus driving licence and successfully collected an unsuspecting victim’s mail, but was caught during a second bid when suspicious staff tipped-off police.
“Neath Post Office workers expecting a broad Welsh accent are met by Melis with a broad Italian accent,” said Judge Peter Clarke QC at London’s Blackfriars Crown Court.
Melis pleaded guilty to three charges of dishonestly making false representations to make a gain at banks in Marylebone; Oxford Street and Baker Street on April 11.
He also admitted possessing a false identity document, with intent to use it to establish personal information, and using the document in connection with fraud at the Neath Office on April 13.
Prosecutor Mrs Jag Shah told the court Port Talbot received a phone call on April 7, purportedly from the wife of local man Gareth Hokin, claiming the family would personally collect their mail.
“She said that due to a carbon monoxide leak at the home they would make the collection at the sorting office.”
Meanwhile Barclays Bank received a request for a new debit card and pin number from a fraudster posing as Mr. Hokin and these were mailed out.
“The defendant or someone else purporting to be Mr Hokin’s son attended with a driving licence and the staff took it as genuine and handed out the mail,” explained Mrs Shah.
Those cards were used to successfully withdraw £4,800 cash on two occasions in London’s West End. A similar attempt in the same amount failed.
When the Hokin’s regular postman – Ian Shepherd - heard about the supposed gas leak he immediately became suspicious and tipped-off the victim who quickly found the debits to his account.
“I’d like him to be commended. It obviously came to his attention because he is the regular postman,” said Judge Clarke. “It shows exemplary attention to his customers that he should speak to them personally.”
Two days later Melis was back in Wales trying the collect post in Neath after a foreign woman claiming to be the wife of Leighton Thomas from Neath Valley called up the sorting office.
“She said there was a problem with carbon monoxide in the area and that the family’s post would be collected,” explained Mrs Shah.
Melis turned up with a driving licence in Mr. Thomas’s name, but with his own photograph, but was refused mail by staff and the police called.
“Mr. Thomas later told police he did not know anything about a gas leak or a change to his mail arrangements,” added the prosecutor.
“It’s obviously a less cosmopolitan population in Port Talbot than in Marylebone,” commented Judge Clarke, referring to the postman’s swift action in spotting something was odd.
“Maybe people just care about each other more in Port Talbot,” said Melis’ lawyer Mr. Sean Smith.
“He did not have funds and fell prey to temptation,” added the lawyer, claiming his client lived in a squat and was on 10% commission from the scam’s organisers.
“You were working for sophisticated people and were defrauding banks effectively and causing considerable distress to people in Wales who lost that money,” Judge Clarke told Melis, who spent a week in Swansea Prison after being remanded in custody by Neath Magistrates’ Court on August 4.
No order was made regarding compensation or confiscation.
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