Dad told he was dying stole £25,000 of duty free goods after exploiting in-flight loophole HUNDREDS of times
23.03.2022 - 17:21
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
An airline passenger was arrested at Manchester Airport after exploiting a loophole in the way card payments are processed mid-flight to steal £25,000 of duty-free goods.
Dubbed the 'Fraud of the Skies', Keith James, 63, stole the items, including perfume, alcohol and cigarettes, in hundreds of transactions over three years by taking advantage of gap in banking security on flights between Manchester and his second home in Spain.
James, who believed he was terminally ill with bladder cancer, used bank cards with no credit facilities after realising online transactions could only be processed after planes landed, a court heard.
Between May 2016 and April 2019 the married father-of-six would fill his bags with items from the duty-free trolley onboard then, after touching down at the airport, would make a quick getaway before cabin crew downloaded passenger purchases. They would then find his transactions had been rejected due to 'insufficient funds''.
READ MORE: Jet2 Manchester to Turkey flight forced to land in Vienna after 'out of control' woman starts attacking passengers
Even when Jet2 tried ban to the rogue customer from their flights he managed to get round it by using his middle name on boarding passes.
James, from Greenwood Road, Wythenshawe, would ignore legal letters demanding payment and even kept flying with the same operators but he was eventually arrested at Manchester Airport as he got off a flight from Spain. He later admitted hundreds of illicit mid-flight transactions for pleasure claiming he wanted to ''get one over'' on the banks claiming they were ''keeping customers in debt'.
He said he had gifted all the stolen items, which also included sunglasses and aftershave, to his family. The total amount of