Barclays
A woman walks past the Swiss Cottage branch of Barclays bank in London Reuters

Former acid house rave organiser turned cyber criminal Tony Colston-Hayter and his gang blew a fortune at Harrods and Selfridges after stealing £1.25m through trojan horse attacks on computers at branches of Barclays Bank.

The gang used a hardware device called a KVM switch, which allows workers to access their computer systems remotely, to steal more than 24,000 credit cards from American Express and Coutts customers.

One of the KVM switch devices, which can be bought for as little as £10 over the internet, was found attached to a 3G router of a computer in the Barclays branch in Swiss cottage, north London.

Police said this method of tapping into personal data was a "rapidly evolving" field of cybercrime.

"This new methodology demonstrates the rapidly evolving nature of low-risk, high-financial yield cyber-enabled crime," the Metropolitan Police said.

In September last year, police seized thousands of credit cards and personal data, as well as, cash, jewellery, and drugs in a raid across properties in Westminster, Newham, Camden, Brent, and Essex.

Barclays has since recovered £543,000.

Colston-Hayter has known as the "Acid House King". He famously handcuffed himself to Jonathan Ross after his Sunrise parties were banned by the then Home Secretary Douglas Hurd.

The Suspects

Tony Colston-Haytor

Admits to:

- Conspiracy to steal credit card balances from Barclays

- Conspiring to commit fraud using credit cards

- Conspiracy to steal

- Two counts of possession of articles for use in fraud.

Denies:

- Interfering with the emails of Stephen Merchant with the intention to commit fraud or theft, which was left on the court file

LanreMullins-Abudu

Denies:

- Two counts of conspiracy to steal

- Conspiracy to commit fraud

- Concealing criminal property and possession of articles for use in fraud

Stephen Hannah

Denies:

- Conspiracy to commit fraud

Lewis Murphy

Admits to:

- Possession of criminal property

Denies:

- Further charge of conspiracy to commit fraud

Darius Boldor and Michael Harper

Admits to:

- Both pleaded guilty to using stolen credit cards

- Boldor also admitted stealing credit balances from Barclays

Segun Ogunfidodo and Leroy Odunusi

Admits to:

- Pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit fraud using credit cards

Akash Vaghela

Denies:

- Conspiracy to steal from Santander and was cleared half-way through the trial on Judge Juliet May QC's direction.

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