Canadian card scam: Tiger link probed
A routine traffic stop in Toronto has sparked a
widening police probe of a debit-card fraud that may have funnelled
funds to the LTTE from Canada.
After a visiting motorist failed to halt at a stop
sign Monday, police in Scarborough's 42 Division searched his rented
vehicle and found plastic cards carrying the debit data of bank
customers in the United Kingdom.
Now four men face multiple charges of attempting to
loot bank accounts in Britain.
The four - two of them visitors from Britain and two
of them Toronto residents - are all of Sri Lankan origin.
For now, the alleged scam is being treated as a
relatively straightforward effort to steal tens of thousands of dollars
from British bank-card holders via the international network of
bank-teller machines.
But lead investigator Detective Scott Whittemore said
yesterday that in visits to two Scarborough homes, police discovered
calendars and posters promoting and lauding the LTTE, a group outlawed
in Canada.
Providing it with material support has been illegal
since April of last year, when Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day
announced that the Tigers had been added to Ottawa's list of proscribed
terrorist groups.
The United States and the European Union have
similarly blacklisted the organisation.
Police are investigating whether any of the four men
has financial ties to the Tigers.
If the alleged fraud was intended to benefit the
Tigers, it would not be the first time crime-derived funds have been
funnelled to the group, but such connections are always hard to prove,
Det. Whittemore said.
The four men were arrested when their rented car ran a
stop sign and was examined. Police discovered 42 plastic bank cards in
the car, and dozens more cards were found when police later raided a
Brampton hotel and a home on Scarborough's Ellesmere Road.
And while it was unclear how much money was actually
stolen, $25,000 in Canadian $20 bills was found in the raids, along with
two laptop computers, computer memory sticks and hardware, pinhole
cameras and passports and travel documents. The four men will appear in
court tomorrow for a bail hearing.
Courtesy : Dailynews |
