UK's 'Sir King Cash' card fraudster ordered to cough up £560,000

A South London chap has been ordered to pay back more than half a million pounds he stole via hacked payment card numbers.

Sean "Sir King Cash" Benson, 26, has already been sentenced to seven years behind bars on fraud charges, and now he will have to pay £554,000 ($732,700) in reimbursement to his victims, thanks to an order handed down by the Southwark Crown Court.

His Majesty [no – ed] had been convicted of purchasing stolen card numbers from Russian hackers, then using the cards to make purchases from his own online music service and DJ equipment store, the "profits" of which he then cashed out and used to go on a spending spree that included a £40,000 wedding and a honeymoon in Hawaii. In total, it is estimated Benson went through more than 2,000 stolen credit cards.

After running the scheme over the course of a year, both Benson and his partner were subsequently caught and convicted of fraud and money laundering in July of 2015.

"Criminals need to understand that we do not stop at conviction. If you are a criminal trying to benefit financially from the misery of others, we will go after your ill-gotten gains and return it to the victims," said specialist prosecutor Anthony Hill.

"It's important to cut off this flow of cash, not only so criminals don't benefit from their illegal activity, but also so that their money may not be used to fund further crime."

Benson will have three months to come up with the £554,000 or face a default sentence of five years imprisonment.

How about that for some Folsom Prison Blues [I said no Johnny Cash puns – ed]. ®