Man who used fake credit card details to scam businesses out of $35,000 released

A South Australian man who used fraudulent credit card details to scam businesses out of $35,000 has been released from jail after an appeal to the Supreme Court.

David John Bagnara, 27, was convicted of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from service stations, pharmacies and a Mitre 10 store over six months.

In an appeal judgment, Justice Adam Kimber said that the offending was persistent with a degree of sophistication. Bagnara used an algorithm to generate credit card numbers.

He would cause the store to enter his numbers manually into the EFTPOS terminal, so he would damage his own card.

He would enter fraudulent credit card details in the EFTPOS settings to complete transactions.

In November of last year, Bagnara ordered different items over the phone from a Mitre 10 store in Balhannah using fake credit card details.

Bagnara picked up some of the products while other goods were delivered to a storage unit.

The store Mitre 10 lost $10,371 in multiple transactions over the course of three days.

Mazzone Jewellers lost $7,280 in December of last year, which was another victim of the scam.

In one occasion, the 27-year-old purchased items worth $20, but manually entered $2,000 into the EFTPOS machine using false credit card details.

When the transaction was completed, he demanded the store refund $2,000 in cash.

In December, Bagnara tried to buy gambling tickets valued at $800 at a service station in Clearview, but only $300 worth of tickets was printed, requiring the service attendant to refund $500.

Bagnara was offered $100, which he accepted, and was asked to return the remaining $400 the next day, when the service attendant could not refund the money using the EFTPOS terminal.

A Mount Barker service station lost $5,438. He made seven manual transactions using false credit card information.

Justice Kimber found that the magistrate erred in sentencing one of 13 counts as theft when it was attempted theft.

Bagnara was entitled to a reduction of up to 40 per cent for some offenses, but the magistrate only granted a 30 per cent reduction.

Justice Kimber resentenced Bagnara to 10 months with six months and 12 days in jail and the rest to be spent in the community under supervision.

He was released this week because of the sentence that was backdated to December 17 when Bagnara was remanded into custody.

Data from the Australian Payments Network shows that card fraud cost $490.1 million in the 2020 -- 21 financial year, an increase of 9.2 per cent from the year prior.

Criminals and criminal groups that are more tech-savvy can find ways to manipulate the system, and these are areas of opportunity, he said.

He said that people who are older or less educated are more vulnerable to card fraud because they are less likely to detect fraudulent transactions until it is too late.

It is a big issue, he said. Criminals are doing it to hundreds and hundreds of people.

The increase in card fraud is 10 per cent every year, that's compounding year on year.