A curry boss was duped out of almost £44,000 by con artists who placed huge outside catering orders – and paid with fraudulent credit cards.
Khadka Khadka thought he’d been thrown a lifeline after Covid threatened his restaurant - The Gurkha's, in Crieff, Perthshire.
He had no idea at the time that scammers running an international racket would raid his business of hundreds of curries and alcohol with fraudulent details from an Asian bank.
During October and November 2020, faceless fraudsters placed £44,000 worth of orders at The Gurkha's restaurant and takeaway for a trio of phoney functions.
Their first takeaway, worth a fraction over £5,000, was placed on October 29 with three days for staff to prepare and a four-figure deposit was accepted by management.
Having received the sizeable deposit, Mr Khadka quickly bought in enough stock to meet the mammoth order which was placed by "Mr Brown".
The initial order of curries, rice, starters, naan breads and portions of poppadoms and sauces for 50 was handed over to a driver who came for collection, along with case upon case of soft drinks and bottles of wine and spirits.
However, Mr Khadka did not hand over the food until the transaction was approved and the money was in his account.
Paid over the phone, the payment went through first time and Mr Khadka received a Whatsapp message shortly after from his cruel customer praising his team's cooking.
November 1, 2020
Used to preparing four-figure orders for functions, Mr Khadka took another deposit from the same customer days later worth £11,000, increasing his order to food for 80 and ramping up the booze demands.
Again, a deposit was paid and the money payment went through for what Mr Khadka was told was another function.
November 5, 2020
With their relationship seemingly flourishing, the brazen crooks placed one last gigantic order worth almost £27,000 a few days after.
This final order was so substantial that Mr Khadka had to close his restaurant for a week to focus on cooking everything requested. It meant his local cash and carry ran dry and he had to complete the alcohol shop in Glasgow and order meat in from English suppliers.
Mr Khadka coughed up more than £30,000 altogether on stock to meet the demands, but was looking to cash in after a tough year as a lockdown-hit business.
Again, a deposit worth thousands of pounds was accepted and Mr Khadka got to work making hundreds of curries. The payment, made in nine £3,000 instalments, was accepted over the phone.
But disaster struck a week after when the businessman's bank, Santander, phoned to deliver some bad news.
Mr Khadka was told the payments were made using a fraudulent credit card and the money from all three orders was removed from his account.
The bank explained that the card, registered to an account in Hong Kong, was being used illegally.
Their fraud squad had been contacted by Elavon, the company Mr Khadka's business uses to process card payments.
Elavon notified the bank that, in total, £43,100 of the payments made to the business current account were potentially fraudulent.
Eight days later, they requested that Santander return the funds and provided the bank with an indemnity. Santander duly obliged. In a letter sent to Mr Khadka at the beginning of the year, the bank say they "can understand his frustration".
A Santander spokesperson said: "We have the utmost sympathy for Mr Khadka, and all who fall victim to the criminals who carry out fraud.
"In this situation, we returned payments to the bank they came from after we were contacted by Elavon, the company which processes card payments for Mr Khadka's business, informing us they were fraudulent.
"We have advised Mr Khadka to pursue the matter with Elavon."
Santander stress they have no involvement with the security checks Elavon completes prior to Mr Khadka's account receiving the payments.
To rub salt into the restauranteur's wounds, Elavon are still chasing him for thousands of pounds in transaction fees needed to convert almost half a million Hong Kong dollars into sterling.
Furthermore, some of his more sizeable card transactions from regular locals are being blocked and Mr Khadka feels he may have been blacklisted.
A spokesperson for the financial giants said: "We are very sympathetic towards Mr Khadka.
"However, we are unable to comment further on the details of his case in the interests of privacy.
"Elavon takes fraud and data security seriously, and has robust systems and processes in place to prevent and report fraud.
"Fraud prevention starts when we bring new customers on board, and extends to transactional data security, fraud prevention technology and customer education on what's required to take payments safely, securely and efficiently to stop financial fraud before it happens."
In a letter they sent to Mr Khadka, the company claim that as the customer was not present when the transaction was completed, the business becomes liable.
It read: "Our records show the transactions were processed as keyed Customer Not Present (CNP).
"Because you chose to accept the transactions this way, which is not secure, you accept liability of the transactions that appear to have been fraudulent."
Mr Khadka's neighbours on Crieff's East High Street captured the white Citroë* Relay van which collected all three of the con artists' orders on external CCTV, however security footage has now lapsed.
The Nepalese restaurant's boss did, however, make a note of the fraudster's vehicle registration plate.
Mr Khadka also has a phone number and email address for the "Adam Brown" who placed the orders and has an address for him in Gullane, East Lothian.
However, the phone number is no longer connecting and after making the three-hour round trip to the address he was given, Mr Khadka found the property empty and presumed it to be a front for organised crime.
The Courier also travelled to Gullane to investigate the address given to him, only to make a startling discovery.
Living at the residential property in a quiet corner of the East Lothian village were Mhairi and Mark McCran, a couple who have spent much of their lives living under the shadow of identity theft.
Ms McCran explained that she's had police officers and disgruntled businesspeople on her doorstep in the past, enquiring into frauds and chasing up missing cash.
"Every time you start to relax and think that's it over, something else happens," she said. "This is our life. Last time, it was the owner of a garage.
"Whoever is using this address had got a substantial amount of work done on a car and then the money disappeared.
"The police have been here a few times. I've spoken to them over the phone and it's been officers from down in England."
Ms McCran had been embroiled in another identity theft hell when she stayed at a previous address in nearby Tranent.
She and her family emigrated to Australia but returned to find the issue rearing its ugly head again.
Having moved to Gullane almost a decade ago, her life has been sucked back into this nightmare and, still feeling the repercussions, wants to see unscrupulous shyster "Mr Brown" brought to justice.
The couple have had bother trying to book holidays, buy cars and pay for home renovations - and suspect the dark clouds of fraud which have been following them for years are to blame.
She's even had bother getting online orders delivered to her home.
"It is a bit of a nightmare. We've been blacklisted. We started to get letters about money then phonecalls from police," she said.
Police Scotland describe the events the McCrans have experienced as "warning signs" of identity theft.
Ms McCran wasn't aware of the latest scam using her address and hadn't heard the name Adam Brown before. Her heart goes out to Mr Khadka and she says she's yearning for this sorry saga to come to an end.
Amazingly, after receiving notification that almost £44,000 was being removed from his account, Mr Khadka was approached a fourth time by brazen Mr Brown.
At this point, he walked around to Crieff Police Station and offered to set up a sting with officers waiting to arrest Mr Brown's drivers.
However, he was dismayed when officers declined his "snare" offer and, nine months on, the case has gone cold.
We contacted the police and were told they wouldn't comment on specifics of an enquiry while it is ongoing.
All they were willing to say was: "We received a report of fraudulent activity directed at a business in the East High Street area in Crieff on Friday November 6, 2020.
"Enquiries into the incident, which involved the false use of credit cards, are ongoing."
The spokesperson added: "People should be aware that unsolicited emails, text messages and calls may not be from the person or organisation which they appear to be from. It is also important to be vigilant if dealing with a new supplier or buyer and to ensure who you are dealing with is genuine, particularly if the transaction involves a large amount of money.
"If you receive any communication that you are in any way concerned about, please do not give out any personal details or payment information.
"Don't feel pressured to give out information. A genuine business or trader will understand the need to be cautious.
"If you feel you may have been the victim of a fraud then contact your bank immediately and you can report any suspected criminality to Police Scotland by calling 101."
Mr Khadka has also turned to local MP John Nicolson, who has been in dialogue with Santander.
Mr Nicolson did not wish to provide a comment at this point as enquiries are ongoing.
We also tried to contact Mr Brown but have had no reply
