Butcher slams credit card scam

Ieuan Edwards cannot recover the money stolen in the scam

A butcher has criticised the police and prosecution authorities in Scotland after their decision not to prosecute thieves who stole thousands of pounds from him in a credit card scam.

In September Ieuan Edwards, owner of the award-winning Edwards of Conwy, began delivering meat to a company in Partick, Glasgow, who ordered goods by telephone and paid using credit cards.

The card transactions were authorised and he carried on delivering for a further three weeks until he began to get letters from his bank informing him the transactions were in dispute by the customer.

He telephoned his customer in Scotland who assured him there must have been a mistake.

However, he soon found out the company were using credit card details fraudulently obtained from genuine customers.

He contacted North Wales Police who investigated the matter.

However they told him that although a crime had taken place, they could nothing about it because they have no jurisdiction in Scotland.

This has got to be the biggest cop out of all time by the authorities in Scotland - scandalous would be too tame a word to describe it Scam victim Ieuan Edwards

Mr Edwards was told the Procurator Fiscal, part of the Scottish prosecution service, were not proceeding with case.

He was told the cards were not stolen but one of the ways the credit card information could have been obtained was by paying petrol attendants £10 to pass the details on.

He said: "North Wales Police couldn't do enough to help us and wanted to do something about it but their hands were tied.

"The criminals in Scotland will be laughing all the way.

"This has got to be the biggest cop out of all time by the authorities in Scotland - scandalous would be too tame a word to describe it.

"They seem to be saying, we are going to ignore credit card fraud because there is too much work involved."

A North Wales Police spokesman said because the offences were committed in the Partick area of Scotland the matter would have to be dealt with by Strathclyde Police.

'Card not present'

However, as the offences were committed when the card holder was not present a ruling has been made by the Procurator Fiscal that "it was not in the public interest to pursue these offences."

Mr Edwards was sent a letter by North Wales Police informing him of the decision and a fax from police in Scotland outlining guidelines set down by the Procurator Fiscal into these 'card not present' transactions.

The fax said there have been a number of small, medium and large scale enquiries conducted by various forces over the past years into the transactions.

For a number of reasons they had failed to stand the scrutiny of the Procurator Fiscal's service and progressed to trial.

"They are not prepared to take up the time of the court in attempting to gain successful prosecutions in such cases where negligence, incompetence or stupidity on the part of the 'victim' played a major part in the successful commission of the crime."

Among the awards held by Mr Edwards' business are 1994-95 Top Shop in Wales and True Taste's Best Shop and Products in Wales 2002.

He said he had no way of recovering the stolen money.