Calais Cash

How come these guys (foreigners, immigrants – call them what you will) know more than we do about taking cash out of ATMs? When I go abroad I’m always fearful that (a) the ATM will swallow my card, or (b) there’ll be a terrible mistake and I’ll get loads of charges levied onto my account or (c) I’ll mess up the request for cash and I’ll end up with nothing. Read the following article and weep.

A total of 34 Slovakians based in London were arrested in France after using Barclays Bank cards to fraudulently withdraw more than £300,000 worth of euros. They arrived on the Dover to Calais ferry on Friday morning and began emptying cash machines across the region (not a booze cruise then?). Armed police made 34 arrests, but not before many had fled with bags of money which remains unaccounted for. “It's one of the most bizarre crimes we've ever dealt with,” said a detective in Lille. "More than £130,000 worth of euros was taken from Dunkirk alone in the early hours of Friday morning.”

The mass withdrawals triggered alarm bells at a specialist financial monitoring unit in Paris, leading to an armed response unit being activated.

At 9.30am on Friday six men were arrested in Calais with more than £22,000 worth of euros in their pockets. Much more had been taken earlier, including at least £135,000 from machines in Dunkirk and £27,000 in Bithune. All of those arrested were carrying scores of Barclays bank cards, many of which are believed to have been handed over willingly by members of London's large Slovakian community. Like all bank cards, they were able to be used in numerous machines, and not just ones run by Barclays.

“Whoever was responsible for this scam worked out how to use the Barclays card abroad without any credit limit, and had got lots of Slovakians based in Britain interested,” said the source.

Of the 34 arrested, all have since been released, with four on bail facing charges of swindling within an organised gang.

Barclays blamed the security breach on a “computer bug” which has now been eliminated.

Comment: The scam appears to be that by using Barclays cards in French machines, the ‘crooks’ could take as much out of each machine as they wanted to – they were not limited to the £300 limit or whatever it is that most people are subject to. And of the 34 arrested, all have since been released – why? And the ones actually charged and released on bail – do the police actually think they’ll turn up for their next hearing – I doubt it. And as for Barclays – they’ve fixed the bug – a bug which only affected French ATMs – again I doubt it.

But you’ve got to hand it to our Eastern European cousins – if there’s a wrinkle and there’s cash on offer – they’ll find it, or nick it!

And as if just to prove my point (about the difficulties of using French ATMs) – I stuck my French card into an ATM last weekend and it was swallowed. Could I get it back – no siree – ‘our technician only visits once a week – we’ll call you when he’s been so you can come and get your card back’! At least I can’t spend any money now!