Brothers That Stole £150,000 Got 18 Month Sentence

The two professional poker players that stole over £150,000 from cash machines to fund a trip to Las Vegas have been imprisoned for 18 months. 

Brothers Mohammed Imran, 33, and Mohammed Irfan, 36,  both stole the money over a period of three days back in 2005.   Before they committed the offense both regularly competed against high rollers that included Bill Gates and Kerry Packer at some of Las Vegas' top casinos.

One of their regular places to play was the Bellagio Hotel that was made famous in the movie Ocean's 11.  In the scam the pair would use information that was given to them by "an insider: after Halifax and the Bank of Scotland overhauled their auto teller programming system following a merger that happened three years ago.

About 400 staff members in Scotland and England helped to implement the changes.  Imran Bashir, prosecuting. told the Glasgow Sheriff Court that an "error" in they system later became known although it wasn't known if it was deliberate.  "What is clear is that a member of staff had communicated information of this fault to either of the two accused or other persons," he said.

The glitch allowed Imran and Irfan to overcome the ATM's security by using a expired Halifax Bank of Scotland Keycard.  The court heard that between May 29th and June 1st of 2005 that they made 380 withdrawals at cash points all over Glasgow including a withdrawal at the city's Riverboat Casino. 

The bank eventually became aware of the scam and traced the card that was used to a news agent it the city's Charing Cross.  The card was owned by Shahana Shad who was Imran's sister in law. 

She admitted that she was a customer of the bank but said that she had never received her card.  Both brothers were originally charged with stealing a total of £486,320 but prosecutors accepted their guilty pleas of taking £154,640.