Dad Branded ‘Fraud Of The Skies’ After Stealing £25,000 From Duty Free With Flight Loophole
The total amount of the goods he stole in the long-running scam was worth £25,556.40
An airline passenger nicknamed the 'Fraud of the Skies' ended up stealing £25,000 worth of duty-free goods over the course of three years, having exploited a gap in banking security while travelling to and from his second home in Spain.
After realising online transactions could only be processed after planes landed, Keith James, 63, used bank cards with no credit facilities mid-flight to purchase perfume, alcohol and cigarettes.
Between May 2016 and April 2019, the married dad of six - who had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and told he was terminally ill - filled his bags with items from the duty free trolley, before making a quick getaway after touchdown before cabin crew could download passenger purchases.
After his transactions were rejected due to 'insufficient funds', James, from Wythenshawe in Manchester, would ignore legal payments demanding payments, and even continued to fly with the same operators.
However, he was eventually arrested at Manchester Airport as he got off a flight from Spain, later admitting hundreds of illicit mid-flight transactions for pleasure, claiming he had wanted to 'get one over' on banks as they were 'keeping customers in debt', and that he gifted all the items to family.
The total amount of the goods he stole was worth £25,556.40, with Jet2 losing out on £12,459.50 in the scam and the now-defunct Thomas Cook losing £13,100.19.
In a statement, James said: ''I'm been an idiot haven't I. But the diagnosis has taken its toll on me mentally and physically and I felt the radiotherapy and chemo had done me in and made me a bit bitter and twisted.
''I was genuinely giving things away as it made people happy. Giving away a bottle of nice perfume was making me happy. I didn't know how long I had left and I liked doing this. I realise it was wrong I shouldn't be doing it. But at the time I was treating each day as my last and didn't think of the consequences - I regret it now and haven't done it since.''
It turned out that Jet2 had previously banned James from its flights, but he managed to get around this by using his middle name on boarding passes. Thomas Cook had also told him not to use cards while on its flights.
At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, James admitted eight charges of fraud by false representation and was given 12 months jail suspended for two years.
He was also ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work and was ordered to wear an electronic tag for six months as part of a 7pm-7am curfew.
Brett Wilson, prosecuting, said James would 'regularly fly to destinations in Europe mainly Spain or the Canary Islands whilst in mid-flight he has used a credit card which had insufficient funds to buy goods', explaining: "Whilst in mid-flight the terminal cannot connect to the bank for obvious reasons and it is only when the aircraft arrives at its destinations the crew plug in the payment machines and the bank does the transaction."
Wilson added: ''There was some planning and connivance behind this offending in working out that it would be very difficult for the airline to catch him. He's deliberately targeted these airlines.
''These are not victimless crimes. People may think a big airline can simply absorb their losses but there's an impact on all of us - raising airfares, airlines employ people locally they buy products and services and pay their taxes and shareholders.''
In mitigation, defence counsel Andy Evans said: '''His targets were the credit card companies not the airlines. He viewed them as organisations with deep pockets who kept normal citizens in debt and he thought this was something he could do to give him pleasure and get one up on a larger system. It was one or two luxury items at a time then he would gift them to friends and family to lighten the mood of his diagnosis.
''This was not him attempting huge financial gain. It was something which presented an opportunity for him to bring some joy to his family in a bleak time in his life.''
James - who is still undergoing twice-yearly treatment for his illness - was also ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work and to wear an electronic tag for six months as part of a 7pm-7am curfew.
Sentencing, the judge, Mr Recorder Nicholas Fewtrell, told him: ''You managed to successfully evade capture for some considerable time. Whilst I've listened with care to what has been said about you, the fact is these offences cannot be tolerated."
James will face a Proceeds of Crime hearing in July.
Featured Image Credit: Cavendish Press/AlamyTopics: UK News
Jess Hardiman