A hotelier has been jailed for four years after he used his guest’s credit card details as part of a £500,000 scam to fund a luxury lifestyle.
Sneaky Colin Phillips, 48, stole customer’s details to buy holidays in America, top-of-the-range cars and even a £50,000 watch.
Phillips would swipe customer’s credit cards at his hotel and pub but then pretend the device was faulty, a court heard.
He would then write down the card’s details and at a later date punch the information manually into the machine to steal money.
One female customer was targeted several times after she signed a cheque to pay for her visit and wrote her credit card details on the back.
Phillips, of Truro, Cornwall, then used the details to steal £10,000 to pay for a family holiday to Disney World in Florida.
He also took one cheque for £80 from a customer and forged it to £8,000, Truro Crown Court heard.
Phillips admitted 23 counts of fraud using pay details of guests at the King of Prussia Hotel in Fowey, Cornwall, between 2007 to 2009.
He also defrauded banks and insurance companies and stole over £200,000 – and tried unsuccessfully to steal a further £300,000.
Judge Phillips Wassall said Phillips had even managed to get a previous court date put back – so he could go on a holiday with stolen money.
He said: ”You carried these offences out in just short of two years. This was a rampant spree of frauds.
“You did it to maintain a luxury lifestyle. You completely deceived your own family who thought you were a successful businessman. But you weren’t.”
Defending, Michael Gregson, said ”fully accepts the catalogue of fraud”.
