Bankrupt Banker: Peel

Peytcho Peev, 41, has been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, possession of credit card forgery devices

Peytcho Peev, 41, has been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, possession of credit card forgery devices, and several other related offences. Vaughan man has been charged in the seizure of ATM tampering devices that police alleged were used to steal millions from bank machines across the GTA. <br />Officers from Toronto, York, Peel, the OPP, RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency began looking into ATM skimming last spring after financial institutions complained about an increase in fraudulent activity. At the time, Toronto Police said a "sophisticated" crime ring was responsible for installing cameras and card readers at ATMs to steal PIN numbers and copy magnetic strip data from debit and credit cards of bank machine users. Using that data, the group was able to create counterfeit bank cards that were used to withdraw cash from ATMs across the GTA, police said. On June 17, officers executed 27 search warrants and eight people were arrested and charged with more than 100 fraud and other related offences. <br />Investigators executed another search warrant Wednesday and uncovered an alleged "industrial-scale" forgery lab inside 27 Roytec Rd. -- near Weston and Langstaff Rds. in Woodbridge. Inside the huge facility, officers found 217 "ATM card reader overlays" in various stages of completion, police said yesterday. The lab also had molding equipment, electronics, a paint shop and a circuit board constructing station, police said. And it was allegedly "stocked for continuous production," police said. Computers were seized during the investigation and are still being examined, but police said they expect to find data from thousands of debit and credit cards. Police have said such scams are a growing concern for the banking industry and more than $100 million was stolen from 159,000 card holders in 2007.