Tyre sale fraud costs Northern Ireland dealer over £6,500
A Northern Ireland tyre dealer has been in contact with TyreTrade.ie to warn of an alleged tyre sale fraud which cost the company over £6,500.
On Wednesday October 13, W.H. Nutt & Son / WHN Tyres in Limavady, Co Derry received a phone call from a man enquiring about the purchase of truck tyres, which were later paid for using two fraudulent credit cards.
“I received a phone call from a ‘Mr Keith O’Grady’ enquiring to purchase truck tyres, he specifically asked for six 385/65 R 22.5 Steers and 12 315/80 R 22.5 Drives, which were not to be fitted by us,” Mark Hiscox, tyre sales manager at W.H. Nutt & Son / WHN Tyres told TyreTrade.ie.
“I told him I would get back to him with prices as I wasn’t sure what was available as he wanted something branded.
“After checking what I could get I rang him back with a price on Nokian and Hankook tyres, he decided to go with the latter for £5,300 plus VAT.
“I told him then I would need payment up front before the delivery of tyres, which he agreed to, so I proceeded to organise for next day delivery.”
Mr Hiscox continued: “Before closing that evening I hadn’t heard back from this ‘Keith O’Grady’, so I rang to confirm payment, but he said he didn’t have his cards with him but would ring the next day, so I decided to let the tyres come on as planned.
“The next morning O’Grady rang to pay with a credit card, but on using the card it declined payment, he said he had a problem with it and had to ring his bank and would get back to me.
“He rang back shortly afterwards and said he would use two cards as he had limits on them. He proceeded to pay the £6,360; one payment of £3,500 and another of £2,860.”
Mr Hiscox said both payments went through in “the usual manner”, and that the fraudster asked for the invoice to be made out to a well-known construction firm in Newry.
Mr Hiscox said W.H. Nutt & Son / WHN Tyres soon received a letter from the payment processing company, Worldpay, to notify the tyre dealer that both credit cards in question were fraudulent.
“I rang O’Grady on the morning of October 27 but it went straight to voicemail. I left a message but to date there has been no reply,” Mr Hiscox said.
“I then rang the courier who then told me he was instructed [by the fraudster] on the day of delivery to drop the tyres off at some waste ground and his money would be in an old cooker.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, at this point I knew it was a scam.”
Mr Hiscox added that he informed the PSNI of the scam “straight away”.