£6.5m net phishing fraud lands two men in the clink

Two men have been jailed for conspiracy to defraud and launder money in an international phishing operation that may have stolen £6.5m.

Douglas Havard, 24, a US citizen who lives in Leeds, was sentenced to six years in prison, and Lee Elwood, 25, of Glasgow was given four years in jail. According to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the pair stole at least £750,000 over a 10-month period as they forwarded money on to unnamed groups in Russia.

Mick Deat, deputy head of the NHTCU, said in a statement: "We are particularly grateful for the assistance provided by our counterparts within the US Secret Service and the FBI for their close co-operation in connection with this investigation. We hope that these sentences deliver a tough message to anybody either thinking about or actually using other people's identities to steal."

Havard is said to have received credit card information and passwords from the Russians. The NHTCU said the men then used fake identities and bank cards to remove money from accounts via ATM machines.

After initially contacting each other over the internet, Harvard and Elwood swapped stolen information and counterfeit documents such as credit cards, driving licences, passports and birth certificates.

NHTCU officers who arrested Harvard in his flat in Leeds last year said they found several fake bank accounts, forged travellers' cheques and equipment to make false identities.

Havard is also wanted in the US for counterfeiting and armed robbery.