Friends enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle for cheap thrills

Two greedy students who used stolen credit card details to fund an extravagant lifestyle for ‘cheap thrills’ have been sent to jail.

The Old Bailey heard Irfan Ahmed, of Brondesbury Park, Willesden Green, and Faiyaz Mohammed, of Harlesden Road, Willesden, both 23, enjoyed ‘beating the system’, despite both having bright futures and coming from good families.

Mohammed took out a loan on a BMW 3 series using the compromised bank details, while Ahmed found it ‘hard to stop’ spending.

The two friends used the ‘ghostmarket’ website to purchase details of compromised credit and debit cards which they used to shop.

Former public schoolboy Nick Webber, 19, who created the site dubbed ‘Crimebook’ was jailed for five years in March.

Mohammed, a student at Kingston University, had sought ‘logistical knowledge’ of how the fraud worked.

Bank details were found on his Blackberry mobile phone and in a text message to Ahmed.

Both men were arrested in February last year.

They each admitted possession of articles for use in fraud last month, but sentence was adjourned so each could complete university exams.

Mohammed had been given a conditional caution in 2008 after admitting a similar offence.

Sentencing them to 10 months in jail each, Judge Paul Worsley QC said: “You wanted what you wanted to have, when you wanted it.”

“Quite clearly both of you are intelligent young men, who come from good homes and there was absolutely no reason for you to offend because you needed money to live, it was simply through greed,’ added the judge.

“The offences are sophisticated, they are borne out of a desire to take other people’s money and they are offences which cause huge upset and inconvenience to other people.”