iTunes scam teenager bought his own singles with stolen credit cards to scoop £500k in royalties



A songwriter used stolen credit cards to buy his own tunes online and make thousands of pounds in royalty payments, a judge heard.

Lamar Johnson, 19, posted music on iTunes and Amazon and then used the stolen details to buy them thousands of times over.

Helen Malcolm QC, prosecuting, said Johnson used 'compromised credit card details' in order to cream royalties from the music sales.

Scam: Lemar Johnson admitted using stolen credit cards to buy his own songs on iTunes

The teenager, of , Wolverhampton, is the youngest member of a group of 10 men accused of making nearly £500,000 through the fraudulent downloads.

The group allegedly downloaded the songs 6,000 times between January 2008 and June 2009.

Johnson, who is currently serving a five-year prison term for grievous bodily harm, admitted being responsible for about 2,000 of the downloads.



He admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud while no pleas were entered for the remaining nine defendants.



Judge Deborah Taylor adjourned sentencing of Johnson and ordered him to be remanded in custody during the hearing at at Southwark Crown Court, central London.

The nine remaining defendants did not enter a plea and will appear before the court on January 25.

Leon Miles, 20, of Wolverhampton; Sheehan Steele, 42, of Birmingham and Matthew Clarke, 31, Birmingham are facing fraud charges.



James Batchelor, 28, of Derby; Rajan Aheer, 21, of Wolverhampton and Sandeep Aheer, 23, of Wolverhampton are also accused of being involved in the scam.

Colton Johnson, 20, and Denver White, 25, both of Wolverhampton are also accused of taking part in the fraud.

