The trial of three men involved in an alleged credit card scam began yesterday in the Circuit Criminal Court in Cork.
Mohammed Majid (38), Jones Road, London; Ali Raza (48), North Green, Leyton, London; and Mohammed Kahleed (25), Gilbey's Yard, Oval Road, London, have pleaded not guilty to 16 charges each under the Theft and Fraud Offences Act 2001.
John Edwards SC, prosecuting, told the court in his opening address that there were "two species" of charges which were faced by the men.
The charges relate to being in possession of an electronic device capable of reading a plastic payment card and the use of "any machine" specially designed for the manufacture of a "false instrument".
Mr Edwards told the jury that on June 3rd, 2006, detectives John McDonagh and Damian Moloney stopped a black four-wheel drive vehicle near the Sarsfield Roundabout in Wilton in Cork city.
Inside the vehicle they found a man and woman, whom they questioned.
In the course of this conversation, the gardaí asked the maif they could search his home at Elmvale Avenue, Wilton.
They were granted permission to search the home.
Mr Edwards continued that at 9.30pm the gardaí arrived at the house, where they could see, through a front window of the living room, a number of men.
"One of the men was using a laptop, another was writing on paper.
"The gardaí entered the house and one of the gardaí called out 'police'.
"One of the men stood up and threw a gold cigarette box on to a coffee table. This contained cards.
"The gardaí suspected illegal activity," Mr Edwards said.
Ali Raza was allegedly sitting on a chair in the room as the gardaí burst in.
Mr Edwards told the court that the State alleges that a laptop was switched on and was attached to a credit card swipe machine.
There were bundles of Tesco swipe cards and some of the cards had four-digit numbers written on the back.
Mr Edwards said gardaí believed that they had stopped the activities of a credit card counterfeiting gang and that all three men were involved in a "joint enterprise".
The jury is to be shown a demonstration of the alleged activities by the men and how the cards were allegedly being swiped.
"You will hear that the hard drive of the computer contained deleted files, including credit card details," Mr Edwards said.
"A thumb file contained details of credit and cash cards. An external hard drive contained e-mails which contained credit card details."
The computer also had a programme called "robo swipe" which enabled someone to access credit card information, Mr Edwards told the jury.
He said the three men did not reside at the address and had allegedly arrived through Cork airport on the day before from London, where they lived.
The trial before Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin continues.