Raffan Ali and Khalil Azam charged with three counts of fraud by false representation

Raffan Ali, 28, of College Bank Way, Rochdale, and Khalil Azam, 24, of Crawford Street, Rochdale, were arrested and charged with three counts of fraud by false representation (at Tesco in Stafford and Asda in Stafford and Cannock) and possession of cloned credit cards for use in the course of or in connection with fraud.

Officers received a report of two men behaving suspiciously at two supermarkets in Stafford at around 11am on Sunday 29 November. It was suspected that cloned cards had been used to make high value purchases before the suspects left in a silver Skoda Octavia.

At around 11.40am the vehicle was stopped by police from the Central Motorway Police Group on the M6 northbound and the occupants arrested on suspicion of fraud. Upon searching the vehicle a large number of cigarettes and electrical items were seized.

The men appeared before magistrates at Cannock on Tuesday (1 December) and were remanded to appear at Stafford Crown Court on Tuesday 22 December.