BOGUS mobile telephones were used illegally on the Eircell network to accumulate £36,000 worth of calls to sex lines in Israel, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday.
A Garda raid on a holiday home in Douglas, Cork, uncovered six cloned mobile telephones which were connected to a computer, and an auto dialler programmed to ring three Israeli sex lines every three minutes, Det Sgt Michael Clifford said.
He was giving evidence in the case of Timothy White (45), who was holding one of the telephones when gardai arrived. White, of Pellatt Grove, London, was remanded in custody for sentence to January 22nd. He pleaded guilty to conspiring with another person between April 1st and 29th, 1995, to operate unlawfully a telecommunications service on the Eircell network.
Det Sgt Clifford told Mr Shane Murphy, prosecuting, that US equipment had been used to scan and encrypt both the Eircell telephone and electronic serial numbers of legitimate telephones on to the fake mobile telephones. As a result, the sex calls registered on the bills of unwary subscribers.
Commission on each call would be paid by Telecom Eireann to the Israeli telecommunications organisation. A share of the commission would then be paid to the sex lines company, which in turn would pay a share to an English group which contracted the lines to set up the fraud.
Telecom Eireann officials who detected excessive billings of some of their customers concluded the Eircell system had been breached. Their investigation led to the Garda raid on the house in Douglas and confiscation of the telephone equipment.
The fraud was detected before, the subscribers received bills for the sums involved.
Det Garda Aidan Murphy said White made a four page statement. He was paid £100 each on two weekends to supervise the operation. The investigation into the group behind the fraud was continuing.