A Birmingham man has been convicted of using sleight of hand to defraud businesses out of cash.
Costel Ventel, 20, of St Margarets Road, Ward End, Birmingham, admitted four charges of fraud by false representation when he appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, 30th June 2020.
Fraud is an offence under section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006. It has a maximum penalty of 26 weeks' custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction; 10 years' custody and/or an unlimited fine on conviction on indictment.
Vental and an accomplice were visiting South Wales when they duped unsuspecting cashiers into handing over cash using a combination of distraction and sleight of hand.
Vaughan Pritchard-Jones, prosecuting, described to the court how the pair visited several businesses in the Tenby and Saundersfoot area in quick succession.
The Romanian national first targeted Saundersfoot Post Office on 17th May 2019, where he tried to con the cashier by repeatedly asking for a large amount of notes to be changed. Fortunately she was alert to the scam and refused to hand over any cash.
The pair moved on to Tenby Post Office, where Ventel asked for £980 of notes to be changed, but discretely pocketed £480 unseen after they had been counted, and asked for the initial amount to be put into his bank account.
Ventel continued to the town's HSBC branch where he used sleight-of hand to keep £450 which the cashier mistakenly thought she returned to her cash drawer.
A similar tactic was attempted in Llanelli, but did not succeed.
The court heard that a cashier had held on to the £800 used by Ventel during the Llanelli offence and then handed it over to police.
Mike Irza, defending, said: "He tell me that at this time he was under tremendous financial pressure. His mother is severely ill in Romania."
Mr Irza added that father-of-five Vental had been held in a detention centre since May, and would have been deported if this matter had not been pending.
Ventel was sentenced to 24 weeks' custody.
He was also ordered to pay £122 victim surcharge and £85 towards prosecution costs. A restitution order was made in the sum of £930 to cover the losses incurred by the businesses.
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