The mastermind behind a scam call website which conned victims out of more than £100million was ordered to pay back just a fifth of his £2million fortune.
Tejay Fletcher, 38, was the founder and leading administrator of iSpoof which helped crooks fleece 200,000 victims out of £43million in the UK alone.
Fletcher from Western Gateway, London, made £3.175million or 112.6 Bitcoin from iSpoof subscriptions from the site of which he received the £2million 'lion's share'.
With his millions, he bought a Lamborghini worth £230,000, two Range Rovers worth £120,000 and a Rolex worth £11,000.
Despite making millions from the website, Fletcher was ordered to pay back just £404,331 of the £2million.
The judge said: 'I direct that he has three months to pay in light of the fact that the vast majority has essentially been secured.'
If he fails to pay, Fletcher will be jailed for 12 months.
At its worst, 20 people a minute were being contacted by callers using scamming technology purchased from the website.
Tejay Fletcher, 38, was the founder and leading administrator of iSpoof which helped crooks fleece 200,000 victims out of £43million in the UK alone
Fletcher bought a Lamborghini worth £230,000 and a Rolex worth £11,000 with the £2million 'lion's share' profit he made from running iSpoof
He also bought two Range Rovers worth a combined £120,000. He has been ordered to repay just £404,313 of the £2million he made
For a monthly subscription, the site provided users with services including a caller ID 'spoof' which would enable con-artists to appear as if they were calling from a bank.
Unsuspecting bank customers would be contacted by the criminals masquerading as genuine employees to obtain passwords and PIN codes. The criminals would then access customers' bank accounts and empty them.
Fletcher admitted making or supplying articles for use in fraud, encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, possessing criminal property and transferring criminal property.
He was jailed for 13 years and four months at Southwark Crown Court in May 2023 for the biggest fraud operation that has ever taken place in the UK led by the Metropolitan Police.
The prosecutor said iSpoof was an 'industrial fraud designed to exploit' people.
He said: '£3.175m, just shy of £3.2m [were the] total profits of iSpoof from selling to fraudsters.
‘Then there is £2m out of that which has been identified as benefits of Mr Fletcher’s.
‘So he’s received £2m, or just short of £2m. So the lion’s share has gone to Mr Fletcher and that’s the value of the Bitcoin that has been traced to date.
Users paid hundreds each month in subscriptions to iSpoof in Bitcoin which was untraceable.
He continued: 'They couldn’t pay in anything other than Bitcoin, of course to ensure nobody could trace the payments.
‘This layer of anonymity is an indicator of sophisticated organised criminal activity.’
Fletcher also ran Telegram help desk which helped fraudsters who used iSpoof's services.
‘He was the sole admin of that Telegram channel and used it to tell fraudsters about its issue.
'He told them of new technical developments and new and forthcoming features that were going into iSpoof and readily announced by this channel.'
One message on the Telegram account read: ‘Good morning users, team iSpoof would like to wish you a great day getting to the dollar $$$'
Another read: ‘Happy New Year all. Back to work, back to get that bag. Back to stashing those Satoshi [the developer of bitcoin].’
Mr Simon Baker, KC, representing Fletcher, said that his client was ‘insulated from the fraud.
‘He did not know who they were or how much money was being extracted.
‘He knew of course that there were victims and they suffered as a result of his actions, but they were very much in the abstract and he did not see, at the time, the misery that was caused by his website.
‘It was only until recently that he was forced to confront the reality of his actions.’