Aqil Khan posed as various people to make the payments over the phone after his accomplices went into shops across Greater Manchester to show interest in cars, jewellery and motorbikes (stock photo)
Fraudsters bought £100,000-worth of cars, motorbikes, jewellery and even new teeth using stolen credit and debit card details.
The group used WhatsApp to plot after its ringleader obtained people’s financial information from the dark web.
Aqil Khan posed as various people to make the payments over the phone after his accomplices went into shops across Greater Manchester to show interest in cars, jewellery and motorbikes.
Manchester Crown Court heard Ashley Vickers, Dane Fitzwater and Samantha Doyle had varying degrees of involvement in the conspiracy.
Vickers and Fitzwater helped the group walk away with several cars and motorbikes.
Fitzwater even managed to pay for a new set of veneers with stolen card details with Khan’s help.
Michael Brady, prosecuting, said Khan was the ‘central figure’, making telephone payments and posing as other members’ fathers.
The court heard that in August 2015, Vickers went into a motorbike shop and said he was interested in two bikes worth a total of £6,000.
Vickers said his father would call and pay over the phone. Fitzwater helped keep watch before sending the garage’s contact details to Khan, who then called up and paid for the items using stolen credit and debit card details.
The purchase of each item followed broadly the same pattern.
The group managed to take a BMW 320 worth £6,500; an Audi A3 worth £9,000; and a Volkswagen Scirocco worth £10,500.
Mr Brady said a total of nine cars and six motorbikes were taken, none of which have been recovered.
In one incident, husband and wife Samantha Doyle (pictured left and right)and Dane Fitzwater (pictured second left) went into Lepps Jewellers in Altrincham, posing as siblings. The couple pretended a relative wanted to buy them a gift
Goods worth £100,000 in total were obtained by the group.
In another incident, husband and wife Doyle and Fitzwater went into Lepps Jewellers in Altrincham, posing as siblings.
The couple pretended a relative wanted to buy them a gift.
Khan posed as Doyle’s dad over the telephone and attempted to buy a £2,600 Rolex watch, but the card was declined.
A female called the following day and paid, before Fitzwater picked the watch up.
Vickers stole a £5,000 watch from a person’s house in Rochdale after seeing it advertised online.
Fitzwater pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud Lepps Jewellers and conspiracy to defraud Butterfly Dental Practice (pictured in a stock photo)
Vickers also snatched £4,650-worth of rings from Lepps Jewellers (stock photo)
Vickers also snatched £4,650-worth of rings from Lepps Jewellers and a £23,000 engagement ring from Time Piece Watch Repairs in Wigan.
The group was rumbled when police found counterfeit cash in Khan’s letterbox on August 27, 2016.
Officers seized his phone and found a long list of conspiracies and information which led them to his accomplices.
Doyle, 38, of Hendham Drive, Altrincham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud Lepps Jewellers in January.
Fitzwater, 34, also of Hendham Drive, Altrincham, was found guilty after trial of conspiracy to defraud motor traders.
Ashley Vickers, 31, of Coronation Avenue, Atherton, Wigan, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud motor traders
Fitzwater pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud Lepps Jewellers and conspiracy to defraud Butterfly Dental Practice.
Vickers, 31, of Coronation Avenue, Atherton, Wigan, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud motor traders.
Vickers also pleaded guilty to thefts from a house in Rochdale, Lepps Jewellers and Time Piece Watch Repairs.
Aqil Khan, 30, of Watson Avenue, Manchester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud motor traders; conspiracy to defraud HD Brows; conspiracy to defraud Lepps Jewellers; and conspiracy to defraud Butterfly Dental Practice.
Khan also pleaded guilty to being in possession of counterfeit cash. Mitigating for Vickers, Rosalind Bell said Vickers had ‘spent his life in and out of prison’ following a difficult childhood.
Mitigation for the Fitzwater, Khan and Doyle will be heard today, when all four are expected to be sentenced.