A Manchester student has been jailed after stealing credit card details and going on a huge spending spree.
Elyas Blidi, of Hulme High Street, pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and three counts of money laundering at an earlier hearing and was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square.
23 year old Blidi had used his previous job, working in sales, to steal the credit card details of one of his customers.
In September 2013 Blidi started university and, using the credit card details he had obtained, went on a huge spending spree and paid for the rent on his student flat.
Blidi bought designer clothes and accessories, including an Armani Exchange watch and Ralph Lauren shirts and spent thousands of pounds on electronics, including a number of Apple iPhones and MacBook.
Blidi then began selling some of the items to friends and on eBay to make extra cash.
Blidi also offered discounts to some of his friends to pay their rent, paid off loan repayments and hired several cars.
His actions led to several of his student friends being initially treated as suspects however they were cleared of any wrongdoing and were found to be victims themselves having paid money to Blidi and then having to cover their rent fees for a second time.
Detective Constable Stuart Donohue, from GMP’s Fraud Investigation Team, said: “Elyas Blidi spent thousands of pounds in a very short time on a credit card that did not belong to him."
“Blidi enjoyed spending money and did so with no regard for the owner of the credit card. It’s a common misconception by criminals such a Blidi that fraud is a victimless crime, however his victim has been put through months of stress and companies have been left thousands of pounds out of pocket all because of his greed."
“Blidi was just starting out at University and had a bright future ahead of him. He has ruined all of that now and will spend the next 12 months in jail.”
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