A postal worker and two others have been charged over an alleged $1.4 million bank card fraud scheme but police claim the number of victims and the amount of money stolen could increase dramatically.
They have issued a warning for people living in several Sydney suburbs to check their bank accounts.
Postal worker Mauro Coluzzi, 56, is accused of stealing letters containing bank cards during the postal run in some of the city’s most affluent suburbs.Â
The Australia Post employee and two others, Ashish Tamrakar and Ibrahim Abbas, were charged following five police raids in Rockdale and Roselands from about 4am on Wednesday.
“By removing that person from the postal service we’ve cut the head off the snake,” Detective Acting Inspector Con Galea alleged.
Police allege Coluzzi took at least 70 bank cards from customers in Edgecliff, Woollahra and Double Bay and supplied them to two separate organised crime syndicates in Rockdale.
The fraud allegedly siphoned more than $1.4 million from customers’ bank accounts to buy designer bags, shoes and watches, which were all seized along with vapes, cigarettes and cash.Â
The alleged method was not complex, with Coluzzi allegedly simply feeling envelopes until finding one containing a card.
“Australia Post have been very cooperative with police and they’re doing their own internal investigations looking at vulnerabilities within their system,” Galea said
Police think this is just the tip of the iceberg.
They’re working with Australia Post and several banks to determine how many people are impacted and believe it could be several hundred.Â
“We had to interject now to stop the offending and then we’ll work backwards,” Galea alleged.
“We expect the value of $1.4 million to increase dramatically.”
Coluzzi was charged with 143 fraud-related offences and the other two were also facing multiple charges.Â
All three were refused bail and appeared in court yesterday.
