UK College Student Bilked Grosvenor Casino Out of $24K, Sentenced

A 22-year-old UK college student who scammed the Grosvenor Casino Birmingham out of £24K (US$29.1K) after memorizing a supervisor’s PIN code was handed a 12-month community service order this week, Birmingham Live reports.

Londoner Samuel Bob-Emmanuel was a regular at the casino in Birmingham in England’s Midlands region. After getting his hands on the PIN code on April 30 this year, Bob-Emmanuel returned to the Grosvenor the next day and managed to transfer the money to his own credit account at the casino, prosecutors said.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that the defendant had wandered upstairs to the poker room, which was empty at the time, and was able to access the casino’s computer system. After making the transaction, he calmly left the casino, according to court documents.

Acted Alone

Prosecutors stressed that Bob-Emmanuel had acted alone and there had been no collusion between him and the staff member whose PIN he had obtained fraudulently.

However, the scheme was unsophisticated. Much of the money was frozen by the bank’s fraud team and was returned to the casino earlier this week, according to court filings.

The defendant pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation Monday.

Defense lawyer Mohammed Naser said his client had taken a year off from college to get a job to “better equip himself for his final year,” Birmingham Live reported.

“He has not sought to prevaricate or delay matters. He has not sought to conceal or dispose of evidence. Of course, the unsophisticated nature of the offense means it was always going to come back,” Naser said.

‘Degree of Planning’

Judge George Kelly agreed that the scam was unsophisticated, because “without a doubt the casino would have been able to ascertain exactly where the money went, because of course, everything in a casino is subject to CCTV and the footage would have immediately identified you as the perpetrator.”

But he added that Bob-Emmanuel’s actions still involved a degree of planning. “It wasn’t entirely opportunistic, because if it was, you wouldn’t have taken note of the supervisor’s PIN and wouldn’t have kept that with you when you went to the casino the following day.

Bob-Emmanuel was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and 25 days of rehabilitation activity. The court heard that the full sum has been returned to the casino.