A traffic accident in Marbella lead to the arrest of a fugitive from British justice wanted for a million-dollar credit card scam
Phillip Lam, a 31-year-old British national from Dingle, an inner city area of Liverpool, Merseyside, was just one more tourist on the Costa del Sol until on November 26, his fugitive plans came to an abrupt stop.
It happened at around 2:30 in the morning in Marbella when an incident with the car in which Lam was driving got noticed by the local Police. The officers identified the young man and verified that he had an outstanding warrant for this arrest.
The national police database indicated that Lam, around 1.60m tall, had an arrest warrant issued by the British authorities. He resisted arrest, had quite a temper, and was as strong as bull, according to police.
Lam had been on the ‘lamb’ since March 9, 2021, the date on which he was summonsed to appear at Liverpool Crown Court to be notified of his sentence for his involvement in a million-dollar scam.
He disappeared but was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison in his absence for stealing the data from more than 1,000 credit card users from the United Kingdom and the United States which allowed him and Steven Noone to live a life of luxury.
According to the Merseyside police, Lam and his partner Steven Noone, whom the Liverpool press called the WhatsApp scammers, used the codes of those cards to extract more than one million pounds (1,136,300 euros).
Extradited
Lam appeared in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court in December, after being extradited back to the UK. James Rae, prosecuting, described how he was detained on an international arrest warrant in Marbella at around 2.30am on November 6, 2022.
Lam arrived back in the country at Gatwick Airport with the assistance of Interpol and the National Crime Agency.
