Offences Relating to Credit and Debit Card Theft and Fraud in NSW

The New South Wales Police Force has issued a public warning about a spate of crimes involving assailants approaching elderly people before stealing and illegally using their debit or credit cards. 

The incidents are alleged to have occurred across several police area commands and reportedly involve thieves duping their victims into producing their wallets before taking off with them.

Reported incidents involve elderly victims being approached by strangers in public who claim to have witnessed them having dropped some money or their wallet on the ground, and when the victim is distracted in checking whether they have suffered the loss, the thieves are grabbing their wallets and going on to commit fraud with the use of their stolen debit or credit cards.

Newcastle police officers explained that a recent incident involved an assailant approaching an 81-year-old man, who was getting into his car in the carpark of a shopping centre on Minmi Road in the outer Newcastle suburb of Fletcher, which is located on Awabakal and Pambalong land, at around 4 pm on Monday, 9 March 2026.

The unknown man claimed that the elderly gentleman had dropped some money, and he wanted to return it. But the assailant then forced the elderly man into his vehicle, located his wallet and took it. The thief, who then had the man’s debit card, was able withdraw $800 from his account at a petrol station in Elmore Vale.

Various incidents involving elderly people having their debit and credit cards snatched and then fraud being perpetrated via their use have been reported occurring in Newcastle City Police District, Kuring Gai Police Area Command, Northern Beaches Police Area Command, The Hills Police Area Command and Hawkesbury Police Area Command.

The offence of larceny

If one of these assailants is picked up by the police, the likely crime they’d be charged with in respect of taking their victim’s wallet or bank card is the offence of larceny, contrary to section 117 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). Also known as stealing, this crime carries up to 5 years imprisonment.

In order to show that a defendant has committed the crime of larceny, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused dishonestly took another person’s property without their permission and without any intention of giving it back.

In terms of defences open to a charge of stealing, the ‘claim of right’ defence is available. This defence involves an accused claiming that they honestly believed they had the legal right to take the property. And as the alleged thief claims that they took what in their mind at the time had genuinely appeared to be theirs, this then negates the dishonestly element of the crime.

The defence of duress is also available to defend against a charge of stealing. This entails the argument that the accused perpetrated their crime in order to prevent a much greater threat of harm against them or a loved-one. The court needs to establish that the suggested threat was substantial enough to warrant the breaking of the law.

The defence of necessity is also available to someone facing a charge of larceny in court. This defence sees the accused claiming that they broke the law in order to prevent more dire circumstances than were set to develop if the crime hadn’t been perpetrated.

The offence of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception

If an assailant is arrested and charged following the use of another individual’s debit or credit card, they will likely be charged with the offence of dishonesty obtaining a financial advantage by deception, contrary to subsection 192E(1)(b) of the Crimes Act. Also referred to as fraud, this crime carries up to 10 years imprisonment.

To show that an accused has committed the crime of obtaining a financial advantage, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused created a deception by using dishonesty, that this dishonest behaviour allowed the defendant to obtain a financial advantage and that this deception was carried out intentionally, or else the defendant was reckless to the fact.

Similar to the crime of larceny, the defences of claim of right, duress and necessity are all open for an accused to raise against a charge of obtaining a financial advantage.

A further defence is open to a charge of fraud, which is the statutory defence of mental impairment or cognitive impairment, which is contained in section 28 of the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 (NSW).

If the circumstances are right, the defendant can argue that they were not criminally responsible for their illegal act, as they had been suffering mental impairment or cognitive impairment or both at the time of their offending, and therefore, they were unaware that what they were doing was wrong.

Theft of mail  

A postal worker was charged with 143 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception in August 2025, over his having stolen debit and credit cards from mail bound for letterboxes across Gadigal land in the Sydney eastern suburbs of Edgecliff, Woollahra and Double Bay. NSW police alleged that he was handing the cards over to two separate criminal syndicates.

The former postal worker was also charged with 70 counts of theft of mailreceptacles, articles or postal messages, contrary to section 471.1 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). And this federal crime can see a defendant facing up to 10 years imprisonment.

To prove this offence, it must be shown that the defendant either obtained a mail-receptacle, or an item or a postal message from the mail, and they had the intention of permanently depriving the owner of this. Permanently depriving another includes appropriating an item without intending another to lose it, as well as having the intention to dispose of the item without their permission.

Legal defences including claim of right, duress and necessity may also apply to the offence of theft of mail.

And in respect of the charges laid against 56-year-old Maruo Coluzzi and two other men involved in the crime, NSW police were expecting the $1.4 million worth of money defrauded from NSW residents who never received their bank cards in the post, was to rise even higher as more stolen cards were expected to be uncovered as part of the investigation.