Jonathan Richman has been jailed for scamming holidaymakers out of the money using false credit cards
A fraudster who posed as a travel agent and scammed £80,000 from customers has been jailed after he was caught trying to flee the country.
Jonathan Richman was detained at Gatwick Airport after his dishonest schemes left holidaymakers unable to travel and out of pocket.
He was caught when he foolishly rang detectives investigating him and tried to warn them off.
The 52-year-old Londoner was handed a two-year sentence at Isleworth Crown Court after pleading guilty to various fraud and money laundering offences.
Richman carried out a number of frauds between 2011 and 2015, where he was posing as a travel agent dealing in last-minute holidays at low prices for his customers.
But Richman was actually paying for the holidays using fraudulent credit-card details, and pocketing the customer’s money.
When the credit card companies later spotted the fraudulent payments, meaning some of Richman’s victims had their holidays cancelled and were left unable to get their money back.
He was caught was a passport staffed with bank cards for accounts through which he laundered money
Detective Sergeant Dave Bullamore, from the Met’s Aviation Policing Command, said: ‘Richman was carrying out these frauds effectively as a full time occupation.
‘He went to great lengths to try and conceal his true identity, right from renting a flat under a false name to setting up fake bank accounts.
‘But his arrogance proved to be his downfall when he called the detectives to threaten and warn them off from investigating him.
‘After some fantastic detective work, we were finally able to match his face to his true identity and arrest him, and despite his attempts to go on the run and evade justice, he is now facing further time behind bars.’
The investigation was launched by officers from the Met’s Aviation Policing Command in September 2013, when two people returning from a holiday in Thailand, were arrested by officers at Heathrow Airport.
The pair were arrested as they were suspected of purchasing their holiday using fraudulent credit card details, but it quickly became apparent they were victims of Richman’s scam.
Richman, pictured in CCTV, was caught after he called detectives investigating the case and warned them to ‘leave him alone’. His phone was traced and he was arrested
Officers spent over a year trying to track down Richman, before, in October 2014, he rang Heathrow CID office and made threats against one of the investigating officers and his family telling him to ‘leave [him] alone’.
Detectives were able to trace the mobile phone numbers used to make the calls, and were then able to link the numbers to Richman.
In total, officers identified around 16 victims – companies or people – who had fallen prey of Richman’s scams.
A warrant for his arrest was circulated and Richman was arrested at Gatwick Airport on 28 August, attempting to board a flight to Morocco.
He pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court on 27 September to three counts of fraud, money laundering and the possession of fraudulent documents and articles for use in fraud. Two counts of fraud and the witness intimidation charges are to lie on file.