Two Victorian men involved in a credit card scam in Hobart sent home after two months in jail

TWO Victorian men involved in a scam that used fraudulent credit cards to purchase expensive mobile phones in Hobart are returning home after spending two months in jail in Tasmania.

Deng Daw Lal leaves the Hobart Magistrates Court after sentencing for his involvement in a credit card scam in Hobart.

TWO Victorian men who were involved in a scam that used fraudulent credit cards to purchase expensive mobile phones in Hobart are returning home after spending two months in jail in Tasmania.

Deng Deng, 18, of Melton South, and Deng Daw Lal, 20, of Point Cook, along with a youth and another man, flew to Hobart using false names on May 27, and used fraudulent credit card details to obtain more than $17,000 worth of mobile phones from Telstra and Essential Mobile, the Hobart Magistrates Court has heard.

Magistrate Reg Marron sentenced Deng and Lal on Thursday.

Mr Marron said the men were taken into custody when they were arrested on May 28, and had been in prison since then.

He ordered they be subject to probation in Victoria.

Deng Deng leaves the court.

The court heard Deng and Lal, with two others, went to the Telstra store in the Elizabeth St Mall on May 28, and to Essential Mobile in Collins St.

The court heard one of the members of the group would not insert a credit card properly when paying for items, causing an error message on the EFTPOS machine, then manually enter fraudulent card details.

“The phones you obtained [are] probably the highest priced mobile phone that’s on the market,” Mr Marron said.

“You intended to employ a technique to exploit what appears to be a hole in the credit card verification process.”

But Mr Marron said the scam was detected quickly.

“People from Essential Mobile and Telstra were on to you pretty quickly,” he said.

The court heard the men were involved in obtaining seven Apple iPhone X phones to the value of $12,768 from the Telstra shop, and attempted to obtain another $3648 worth of iPhones.

At Essential Mobile, the men were involved in obtaining an iPhone 8, an iPhone 7, and two Samsung S9 phones to the value of $4676.

Deng and Lal both pleaded guilty to charges related to the scam.

They also pleaded guilty to a federal charge of travelling on an airline with a false ticket.

Mr Marron said the main reason the two men were not bailed while the charges were before the court was that they were a high flight risk, having no family or connections to Tasmania.

He said the two months they had been in prison would have been a “very sobering experience” for them.

Deng will be subject to a probation order for 18 months and was fined $900 for his involvement in the crimes.

Lal will be subject to probation for 12 months and was fined $400 for his involvement.

Mr Marron did not record convictions against Lal, who he said had no prior convictions and played a significant role in his family.