Fraud fears grow as Vong waiter is jailed

Fears of widespread credit card fraud deepened last week as a waiter at London restaurant Vong was jailed for a year for planning to copy customers' credit cards for fraudulent use.

Raphaelle Tortora, 24, was going to use a skimmer machine to steal details from the magnetic strip on diners' bank cards as they settled their bills. A friend of his, known only as Stabio, gave him the machine.

Stabio asked Tortora to use it on customers' cards over two shifts at the Berkeley in Wilton Place, Knightsbridge. He would then hand it back to Stabio, who would copy the data on to other cards in a process known as cloning.

Tortora, who was to be paid £50 a time, agreed to take part in the scam but was caught before he had the chance.

The plot was thwarted on 11 November last year when police found the machine stuffed inside his work waistcoat. Tortora, of Winstanley Road, Battersea, south London, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to defraud at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in London.

The case is the latest example of suspected credit card copying at high-profile London restaurants. Conran's Mezzo restaurant is currently investigating an alleged case of two customers' credit cards being copied last October and reproduced for fraudulent use abroad.

Another suspected case of credit card copying came to light last month at Harvey Nichols' Fifth Floor restaurant (Caterer, 14 December 2000, page 6).

By Zak Newland