NSW: Sydney flower-delivery thief to face court
22 Nov 2008 8:13 AMSYDNEY, Nov 22 AAP - A man will face court over a fraudulent delivery scam in Sydney's north west which has left people robbed of their savings.
Police arrested a 50-year-old man after stopping a car on the F3 Freeway inWahroonga on Sydney's upper north shore on Friday.
A search of the car revealed a number of card-skimming devices, police say.
Ten northern Sydney residents have told police they have been robbed of a total of32,000 by a convincing and brazen thief posing as a delivery man bringing flowers and wine.
The money was fraudulently withdrawn from personal accounts after each of the victims - one of them a recently bereaved woman - was visited by the same man last month, police say.
"In all instances, a man has knocked at the door of residential homes dressed as a courier with a bunch of flowers and bottles of wine," police said in a statement.
"The man has then delivered a parcel requiring a signature to confirm the goods have been received."
The man is alleged to have told recipients of the parcel that a delivery fee of3.50 is required and must be done via EFTPOS.
In all instances, those involved have swiped their credit card into a hand-held machine and been given a receipt for their payment.
In each incident no card was ever received indicating who the parcel was from, and in the days after receiving the parcel each recipient has noticed several large and unauthorised withdrawals from their bank account, police said.
After his arrest yesterday, the 50-year-old man was taken to Hornsby PoliceStation for questioning and subsequently charged with ten counts of obtaining benefit by deception and one count of goods in custody.
He was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.
AAP cjb =0A