The Credit Card Fraud

The Credit Card Fraud

Times had been difficult, Jeff Tomlinson had been a failure all his life. He could not hold down any job, and his wife left him. Jeff met Douglas in the pub and Douglas offered him an easy money making job. Jeff became a small fry in a complex net-work of drug growing and smuggling. He was a petty grower whose job was to clear small parcels of bush and grew the herb, tended to them and harvested them when they were ready.

The local police of Northland region have asked the residents and farmers to contact them if they see any signs of cannabis crops. The drug lords moved their activities to another remote area. Cop and drug lords were playing a cat and mouse game. Only the small prawns like Jeff had occasionally been caught. Detective Peter Jackson said that although the rate of cannabis-related convictions had dropped, police were not very keen to put drug growers behind bars. They were more interested in the drug lords.

One night, Jeff had just managed to escape by the skin of his teeth when his best friend, Poppy growled when they were sleeping in the lean-to as they guarded their crop of gold. Poppy’s snarling warned him that someone was coming in this deserted bush, and man and dog flee as fast as they could before.

His boss told him to lie low, someone had dobbed on them. The police put Jeff under surveillance for weeks before swooping in. The incriminating crop was found, removed and burnt. Shit! The cannabis, all twenty thousand dollars of cannabis went up in smoke. Yes, it was all up in smoke.

The bigwigs did not want him hanging around them. They rented an old cottage for him to chill out until they found another patch of bush for him to grow the precious crop. Jeff was bored, he did not know anyone in the town. He spent most of the time drinking beer in the town pub and chatting up the voluptuous bar girl, Sharon.

Then Santa Claus came early. The Federal Courier Service came and gave him a small envelope. Jeff thought that his boss had been generous and gave him a present even though he had not been working for months. He signed for the envelope and quickly ripped it opened.

To his surprise, it was a Mastercard credit card. It had the name Gary Hudson on it. But no body would know. He had been bored stiff hiding in the cottage, and he promptly went on a shopping spree. He headed straight to the electronic store and bought a PlayStation Portable video game player. Then he bought a crate of beer from the bottle shop.

Jeff was a bit nervous during the transaction, when the clerk took his credit card.

“I am just excited about getting home and play the PlayStation,” Jeff told the clerk.

“I understand, everyone, man and child, is thrilled to bits to get a PlayStation.”

Jeff called on the girl working at the pub, and flashed his plastic card, “Come, Sharon, I will buy you a steak dinner and then we head back to my place to play Playstation.”

Sharon called to the landlord, “Tom, my mum’s sick, she wants me home.”

Before Tom could say anything, Sharon had taken off her apron and was out of the door. They headed straight to the licensed restaurant. Jeff ordered oysters on the rocks as starters, and a T bone steak. Sharon had shrimp cocktail and a filet mignon. To wash down the food, they had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

Jeff couldn’t wait to play his PlayStation. He didn’t want his dessert.

“Come on! Sharon eat up.”

“What’s the hurry? Cops coming?”

“Sharon, I told you before, never ever mention the word cops!!!!!”

Jeff was nervous again when he handed the credit card to the waiter.

Sharon jokingly volunteered, “He is like a little boy who can’t wait to play his new PlayStation.”

The waiter replied, “He is not alone, I play it all the time when I am not working.”

Jeff took Sharon to the little cottage.

“Ewwwwww! You bring me to stinky a pig sty, no way am I going to stay here for one minute.”

“Okay! Okay! Let’s check in at the local motel then,” Jeff was really ashamed of

the cottage that which he had never bothered to clean.

They checked into the Rainbow Motel, and Jeff wanted to play his PlayStation straight away.

“Jeff, you stink, how long have you not have a bath, huh?” Sharon asked and coaxed him to have a long bath.

“You are worse than my mum, always nagging about me.”

Eventually after Sharon cleaned him from head to toe and a hurriedly romp in bed, Jeff got to play his PlayStation. They played the whole night, rang for room service for breakfast, have sex and played PlayStation and fell asleep. The orgy went on for three days and three nights though it didn’t seem that long to Jeff.

While they were playing the PlayStation, there was a knock on the door. Like a zombie, Jeff opened the door.

“Excuse me sir, we are looking for a Mr. Hudson,” An employee of the Rainbow Motel asked.

Another burly looking man stood at the door.

“Huh??? There is no Gary Hudson here.” A sleep deprived Jeff forgot that he had used the credit card of Gary Hudson.

“We suspect you of using a Mr. Gary’s Hudson’s credit card. I am Detective Peter Jackson.”

“You must be mistaken, he is Jeff, not Gary.” responded Sharon.

“A credit card issued to Gary Hudson was sent to the wrong address. Mr. Hudson’s bank statement showed that you had bought a PlayStation at the electronics store, and a crate of beer in the bottle shop. Mr. Hudson reported his card as lost. When you checked in at the motel with the card, we suspect you had stolen it.”

Peter Jackson hand cuffed Jeff and took him to the police department.

“You have nobody to contact?” the policeman in the station asked.

“No, my parents are in Australia and I don’t want them to know.” Jeff did not want to contact the drug bigwigs. He knew they would not entertain him but they would shoot him in case he ratted on them about their drug activities.

“You can apply for legal aid.”

On her majesty’s service, the legal aid came and helped Jeff. He only had a short period of incarceration for a petty crime of credit card fraud.