UK online fraudster sentenced to 13 years for £100m bank scam

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A mastermind for the website that helped criminals defraud victims worldwide of £100million was jailed on Friday for more than 13 years following the biggest ever fraud probe by the Metropolitan Police.

Tejay Fletcher, 35, helped criminals facilitate ‘company-scale fraud’ through his iSpoof website, heard Southwark Crown Court and led to UK bank customers were defrauded of at least £43m.

The case comes as the UK outlined a nationwide fraud this month strategy reduce spiraling online crime rates by 2025, including cold calling and “number spoofing,” when scammers change their caller ID to disguise their identity.

Fraud accounted for 40% of all crime in England and Wales last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Fletcher of Western Gateway in London pleaded guilty to four criminal charges, including one of manufacturing or supplying items for fraudulent use. He was jailed for 13 years and four months.

Prosecutor John Ojakovoh told the court that Fletcher was the founder and administrator of the now removed ispoof.cc, which offered criminals digital tools that allowed them to impersonate bank staff to defraud their victims.

The scammers would hide their caller ID to make it appear they were calling from a real company or lender such as Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds, the court heard. The website had 44,459 subscribers and charged a monthly subscription payable in bitcoin.

Fletcher personally received £2m worth of bitcoins from the scam and when he was arrested it was discovered that he had a Lamborghini car, two Range Rovers and a Rolex watch worth a combined £360,000.

The ‘extensive and complicated investigation’ had involved more than 700 police days at what used to be London’s Metropolitan Police described as their largest ever fraud investigation.

Criminals used web tools to call unsuspecting customers and obtain information that would allow them to empty thousands of bank accounts, the court was told.

“The total losses to victims exceeded £43m and the estimated loss globally was at least £100m,” Ojakovoh said, adding that subscription fees paid by users amounted to £3m. .

The court found that Fletcher’s action had enabled “industrial scale fraud” in the November 2020 to November 2022 period covered by the charges.

Convicting Fletcher, Judge Sally Cahill KC said: “The evidence in my view shows very clearly your leading and active role in the creation of a sophisticated fraud article which has generated substantial profits for you.”

Fletcher, who has 18 previous convictions, had expressed remorse for his actions and had an “unfortunate upbringing” in nursing homes in addition to health issues, the court heard to mitigate. He had also spent time working in the community, including on anti-bullying initiatives in schools.

Kate Anderson, Chief Deputy Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Through the website, criminals bought the services provided by Fletcher to commit fraud on a major scale, resulting in total losses of more than £43 million for the victims in the UK alone.”