£770,000 scam boss will only pay back £5

A Rochdale fraudster who was the ringleader of an iTunes voucher scam worth over £770,000 has been ordered to pay back only £5 after fraud investigators could not find the bulk of his illegal earnings.

Suhail Tufail, of Ashfield Road, is serving a five-year sentence for fraud and money laundering.

The 27-year-old headed a gang which used stolen credit card details to buy iTunes vouchers in bulk before re-selling them to other websites. A total of £777,278 of unauthorised purchases were made from Apple before the scam was uncovered. But fraud investigators can find no trace of the £200,000 the money laundering scam is believed to have made, so Tufail has been ordered to pay back a £5 nominal sum.

The scam was uncovered when Mohammed Rasool, 25, of Milkstone Road, Rochdale, paid for a trip to the Netherlands in May 2007 with a stolen credit card. Rasool is currently serving five years after admitting fraud and money laundering, and has been ordered to pay back £825.56.

Other gang members included Tufail’s sister and a mum-of-two, Anwar Bibi, 46, of Crawford Street, Rochdale, who must pay back £7,227.

Youth worker Zahid Iqbal, 28, from Milkstone Road, Rochdale, was responsible for £500,000 of fraudulent purchases and must pay £28,832 or face jail.

Mohammed Ali, of Oldham Road, Rochdale, admitted money laundering and was ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and pay back £50.

Dr Kibriya Ahmed, 26, of Marland Hill Road, Rochdale, who is serving two years for money laundering, will pay back £5.

Ketanbhal Kantubhai Patel, 29, from Kings Road, Ashton, who admitted money laundering, will pay back £5 and do 100 hours of unpaid work.