Oldbury man jailed after defrauding companies across country

West Midlands Police said they were alerted to Joshua Murrell’s scam in January last year when a company reported several of their staff reward accounts had been hacked.

The majority of email addresses linked to the accounts had been changed to disposable addresses with the same email provider.

All the email addresses had been accessed by the same IP address.

Further enquiries linked the IP address to an address in Kingswinford where 26-year-old Murrell was living at the time.

Police executed a warrant and arrested Murrell as well as seizing his mobile and laptop.

Analysis of his phone showed multiple voice notes to Dominic Smith, aged 24, discussing their fraudulent activity.

Dominic Smith (Image: West Midlands Police) It was also revealed that the pair had hacked multiple organisations’ salary sacrifice schemes, ordering Cycle2Work scheme vouchers and electrical items such as Xbox games and iPhones.

During the course of their hacking operation, Murrell and Smith managed to gain more than £40,000.

Murrell of Kingsway, Oldbury and Smith of Heathcliff Road, Dudley were both charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud, seven counts of fraud by false representation and one count of possession of articles for use in fraud.

They admitted all charges at an earlier hearing and last Friday (October 11) Murrell was jailed for two years and seven months at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Smith has been handed a two-year jail term suspended for two years.

Detective Constable Louise Watt, from the Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: "Murrell was the brains of the operation with Smith working as a sidekick to try and get away with pocketing thousands of pounds from big companies and trusts.

"However, thanks to the evidence stacked up against them, and the hard work of our officers, we have brought them to justice.”

"If you are concerned you or someone you know may have been a victim of fraud, call us via 101 or use Live Chat."