A SOPHISTICATED gang of burglars targeted hotels across the country, including the Cotswolds, to steal bank cards which were then used in a series of frauds.

The Coventry-based gang targeted around 20 hotels over a two-year period, making almost £38,000 from cards and cash they stole from guests’ rooms.

Among the Cotswolds hotels hit were Charingworth Manor in Chipping Campden where two rooms were entered and £600 in cash and a bank card, on which £500 was obtained, were taken; the Crown Inn in Moreton where one room was entered and £971 obtained using a stolen card; and the Noel Arms Hotel in Chipping Campden where one room was bugled and a card used to the tune of £2,836.

Craig Wills, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to charges of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to commit fraud.

Wills, aged 48, of Coleridge Close, Coventry, was jailed for four years.

With him in the dock were Jamie Gray, 28, of Pegmill Close, Coventry, Steven Gilmartin, 42, of Loudon Avenue, Coventry and Neil McCluckie, 37, of Sunbury Avenue, Coventry.

Gray, was sentenced to 21 months suspended for 18 months, with 180 hours of unpaid work.

Gilmartin was sentenced to two years in jail suspended for 18 months, with supervision.

And McCluckie was sentenced to 16 months suspended for 18 months.

Prosecutor Lisa Hancox said: “They worked usually in pairs. When guests attended for breakfast or dinner they would give their room number, and one of the offenders would note that room number.”

The number would be sent by text or phone to another of the gang who, knowing there was no-one in the room, would get in using either a stolen master key or locksmith’s tools.

“More often than not, however, they would call the victim purporting to be from their bank, saying the card had been stolen.

“Unfortunately, many people did give their pin number, and they were waiting at a bank and would then make ATM or even over-the counter withdrawals,” said Miss Hancox.

Wills was arrested at his home and as officers forced their way in, he rushed upstairs where they found him trying to burn documents in the bathroom.

They seized some of his notes which targeted hotels, including what CCTV cameras there were, the best way to get to rooms, and the types of locks they had.

He also accessed an ancestry research site to obtain family information about people whose cards had been stolen, such as mother's maiden name.

Many of the hotels had been entered into his car sat-nav.

Miss Hancox said the reason the case had taken so long to come to court was partly it had been a huge police operation, and the fact that Wills, Gray and Gilmartin had originally pleaded not guilty.

He said Wills's firms went into liquidation in 2009 because of the recession – and he was ‘in a vulnerable state’ at the time.

Barristers for the other three referred to their more limited involvement, and argued for suspended sentences.

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