Edinburgh man who stole credit card details whilst working as hotel manager jailed

Blessing Bere, 49, of Cadiz Street in Leith, was sentenced to one year in prison on February 11 after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud.

Bere, who worked as a night manager at a Surrey hotel is understood to have used customer’s credit card details to pay for train tickets in 2022. The court heard how the alarm was raised on May 3, 2022 when a customer staying at the hotel noticed a transaction had been made on his card to pay for train tickets.

Blessing Bere, 49, from Edinburgh was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court on Tuesday February 11 following a British Transport Police investigation | British Transport Police

After contacting LNER customer service, the train operator’s fraud department then marked the ticket numbers, due to be used on May 6 as being fraudulent. When Bere presented the tickets on a journey from London to Edinburgh the number immediately flagged the tickets as being suspicious and a fraud alert.

Bere was asked to leave the train at Doncaster so further enquiries could be made. He was met at the station by British Transport Police officers who noted that Bere seemed flustered and offered no explanation as to how the tickets were purchased. Further investigations showed that Bere had attempted to purchase a number of LNER tickets using different cards and he was subsequently arrested.

Bere was searched and several items seized from him, which included several credit card authorisation forms for the hotel with customers’ credit card and personal details recorded on them.

It emerged that the victim had provided his AMEX credit card on arrival to hotel reception staff for any charges to the room. This was the AMEX credit card that the unauthorised transaction was made on.

Detectives contacted the banks relating to the card details found on Bere and discovered that he had made charges to another customer’s account totalling almost £250.

DC Kristene Lawrence said” “Bere was in a position of trust at the hotel where he worked and customers believed that their credit card details were safe when they handed them over. However Bere chose to use this information fraudulently and for his own gain.

“Ultimately he has paid a hefty price – a criminal record, a prison sentence and unemployment. It’s safe to say that crime really doesn’t pay.”

Peter Craggs, senior fraud prevention manager at LNER, said: "We take all reports of fraud incredibly seriously and collaborate closely with BTP to protect the public. Identifying those people abusing the system and ensuring they cannot use our services to profit from their crime is key to our approach.

“We’re pleased that the teamwork embodied by our fraud prevention, customer service and onboard teams, together with our colleagues at BTP, has led to justice being served.”