A criminal from South London who spent thousands of pounds on designer goods and luxury watches after harvesting details from numerous bank customers has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison.

Reiss Mwambe Eugene Holloway-Kawayida, 22, from Vauxhall, London, pleaded guilty to defrauding the banking industry, committing fraud by false representation and being in possession of a false passport. Following a holiday with his girlfriend in Spain, Holloway-Kawayida was arrested onboard the plane when it landed at Heathrow airport on 23 July 2020 by police officers from the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist police unit sponsored by the banking industry that targets the criminal gangs responsible for fraud. At the time of his arrest he was wearing items of jewellery totalling £80,000, including a luxury Rolex watch worth £40,000. He was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday 15 September 2021.

Holloway-Kawayida was found to have committed £943,743 of fraud between February 2019 and July 2020 through harvesting customers? details online and via mail theft to build up a picture of his victims. He then ordered new bank cards, PINs and phone SIM cards for his victims which he intercepted in the post and used to take over his victim's bank accounts. He also produced fake passports with his image on and the victim's details to assist with high value purchases, where further ID beyond a Chip and PIN transaction was required. Holloway-Kawayida used the money from his victims to buy designer clothing, watches and jewellery with individual transactions often over £50,000.

Through collaborative intelligence work between the DCPCU, the banks and jewellery stores involved, the fraud was spotted and all victims were fully refunded.

Following his arrest, internal analysis by DCPCU police officers found his mobile phone device contained over 500 bank card images and receipts for over £400,000.

Detective Constable Andrew Lovett, who investigated the case for the DCPCU, commented:

Holloway-Kawayida was committing fraud on an industrial scale, funding luxury shopping trips by stealing money from unsuspecting victims.

Fortunately we were able to identify this criminal and bring him to justice, after working closely with banks and retail stores he targeted.

Today's sentencing is a warning to those who believe they can benefit financially from fraud that they will be caught and punished.