worldwide credit card scam centred on a village garage

A worldwide credit card scam centred on a village garage may have been carried out by a national crime syndicate, it was claimed today.
Hundreds of people fell victim to the crime at the Jet Garage, in Houghton on the Hill, after copies of their credit cards were used as far away as the Philippines, Australia, Canada, Malaysia and India.
It is now thought the scam could have been carried out by a gang which carried out similar attacks in Manchester and London.
The crime, which came to light on December 10 last year, sucked in most of the 1,500 Houghton villagers, as well as hundreds more drivers who used the garage while passing by.
Garage owner Jim Funnell delivered letters to every house in the village apologising for the scam, and urging anyone who had been affected to contact police if they had not already done so.
Mr Funnell said: "I can't really say anything now as the police investigation is ongoing."I think the investigation has got a lot bigger than it was thought, and there is talk of it involving a syndicate with links to other scams in Manchester and London."One day, when this is all done, there will be a hell of a story to tell about this, but at the moment we can't do anything but hope that whoever did this is caught soon."The criminals responsible installed a fake card reader at the till inside the garage shop, which they used to get customers' card details.It is thought a tiny camera was installed in the garage to spy on customers - including police officers - as they entered their PINs. The card data and PINs were matched up, then e-mailed to criminals around the world, who created fake cards and used them in cash machines.Last night, a spokeswoman for Leicestershire police said they cannot confirm any comments over the links to London or Manchester.She said she could also not provide a figure for the number of people affected by the scam, as more were still coming in.Many of the victims from outside Leicestershire would report the crime to their local force, meaning accurate figures are hard to gather, she said.The spokeswoman said: "Inquiries are still on-going and we cannot reveal any details.This is a complicated case to investigate."