An unrepentant repeat offender who managed to steal $ 1.5 million in Costco goods in a few weeks thanks to false credit cards was stuck because he had parcels delivered to his home.
• Read also: Seven years in prison and the loss of his house for having 70 times defrauded Quebec businesses
In July and August 2022, Tchefli Fadel carried out 446 transactions on the costco website. He recently admitted to having used no less than 140 credit cards belonging to victims of fraud.
In total, he fraudulently acquired goods worth $ 1.54 million. According to court documents obtained by The newspaperthe majority of purchases would have been computers, tablets or Apple phones.
Modified addresses
As Fadel modified the postal addresses of the defrauded accounts to put his own or those of relatives, he received the items ordered to his Mascouche house.
In a single day, the deliverers would even have delivered no less than 15 packages from Costco to the luxurious home of the accused, it was reported during his appearance at the Laval courthouse this spring.
The transactions were reportedly made from only five Costco accounts, which are compulsory to compromise on the site, belonging to Fadel and his relatives.
The retail giant finally alerted the police after noticing the magnitude of the fraud and Fadel was accused after several months of investigation. He recently received seven years of penitentiary and was confiscated his house of an estimated value at $ 1.2 million.
The Tchefli Fadel residence in Mascouche was seized by the authorities.
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Tchefli Fadel was not in his first crimes in similar material. Already in 2010, he had received nine months in prison in a file related to fraud.
Four years later, he returned a few months behind bars for being stuck in possession of a device used to copy the card and nip numbers of users of the automatic counters.
