Cyber crime’s ‘Mr Big’ in plot to rob £1.3m from bank
Eight members of a gang suspected of targeting a branch of Barclays bank in Swiss Cottage, north London, in April, were arrested overnight, and police discovered a control room where they believe the gang masterminded cyber crime on a scale not seen before in Britain.
It is believed that one of the plotters posed as an engineer, and then planted a “keyboard video mouse” (KVM) that allowed thieves to access accounts.
The same method was used unsuccessfully at a branch of Santander in east London earlier this month, and both plots are being investigated as part of the same police operation.
Detective Superintendent Terry Wilson said: “We believe that of the eight people arrested, they all had specific roles within the criminal network of varying degrees and various levels.
“One of them we consider to be a significant arrest. I would class him probably as the Mr Big of UK cyber crime at present.
“We consider that we have significantly dented this criminal network. We believe that we’ve now impacted on the top tier.”
The men, aged between 24 and 47, were held on suspicion of conspiracy to steal from Barclays bank, and conspiracy to defraud UK banks.
Police carried out a secret intelligence operation to target the network, which led to the arrests.
“We’ve actually been quite astounded by what we’ve come across, which effectively is a cyber crime control room in Seymour Street in Marylebone,” Mr Wilson said.
“We have recovered an overwhelming amount of evidence, so much so that we’ve had to draft in further resources. We weren’t expecting to find what we did find there.”
The “logistical control room” was in a residential address and allowed cyber crime “on a scale that we’ve never really seen before”, he added.
Searches have been carried out at various addresses in London and Essex, where officers have discovered “a huge amount of evidence”, including cash, jewellery, drugs, thousands of credit cards, and personal data.
Mr Wilson would not comment on whether other banks had suffered similar attempted thefts, but said none had lost money.
“We’ve no evidence of other banks at the moment that have suffered losses in terms of the use of a KVM, however...we are sharing intelligence in order that banking security can be enhanced, and this type of crime actually designed out, by hardening their security systems,” he said.
Customers at the Swiss Cottage branch of Barclays expressed their concern at news of the theft, although the bank has confirmed that no customers lost money as a result.
Joseph Mendy, 52, from north London, said: “My concern as a Barclays customer is its own internal security. I would like to think Barclays will do everything necessary to protect me as a customer, and my savings and investments. It’s for the bank to explain to us what’s going on.”
Jeremy De Friend, 19, who is from Switzerland but lives in north London, said: “I opened an account last week [after moving to the UK], and I chose Barclays because they are quite well known.
“I think this [cyber theft] could happen to any bank. As I understand, Barclays are the most advanced with technology.”
Alex Grant, Barclays’ managing director of fraud prevention, said that bank had “acted swiftly” on the day of the theft.
“Barclays has no higher priority than the protection and security of our customers against the actions of would-be fraudsters. We have been working closely with the Metropolitan Police following a security breach at our Swiss Cottage branch in April 2013.
“We identified the fraud and acted swiftly to recover funds on the same day. We can confirm that no customers suffered financial loss as a result of this action.”
