This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Champagne club funded with stolen credit cards
An Aussie fraudster has been jailed for almost three years after being found guilty of stealing customer credit card details to fund a Champagne club in Perth.
Nicholas Gaskin was sentenced to almost three years in prison for funding a Champagne subscription business with fraudulent funds (Photo: The West Australian)
Nicholas Leslie Gaskin, 31, ran the Perth Champagne Club a wine subscription business that sold fine Champagne to customers across Australia. A blurb for the company states:
“Perth Champagne Club was founded by Nick Gaskin in August 2013 with a singular mission: to bring the very best Champagne and Champagne education available to the doorstep of everyday Australians.”
The business was even endorsed by Australian celebrity chef Manu Feildel, a judge on the country’s My Kitchen Rules cooking game show. A YouTube clip from Perth Champagne Club shows the chef explaining how to pronounce wine-related words.
Perth District Court heard how Gaskin used the credit card details of customers he had met in his day job as a sales representative in the hospitality industry to place orders to the value of AUS$64,000 (£38,000) for his wine subscription business and to present the appearance of a high-flying lifestyle.
The plan failed when the banks involved suspected fraudulent activity and suspended the transactions, The West Australian reported.
Read more…
Diamond and wine fraudster escapes jail
Wine fraud Kurniawan’s Burgundy land sold
Even after he was caught and admitted the crime, Gaskin is reported to have continued with his deception – after the judge adjourned the case so that he could ‘come clean’ to his family, Gaskin went on to present his lawyers with fake character references, even posing as one of those references – a psychologist – in a telephone conversation with the lawyers.
Gaskin, whose pet dogs have more than 70,000 followers on Instagram, was sentenced to almost three years for the credit card fraud. He was also sentenced for lodging a false business activity statement and fake supporting documents with the Australian Taxation Office in an attempt to scam an $18,000 tax return.
Gaskin’s lawyer told the court that her client’s offending was based on his need to present a “socially desirable image”.