A gang of fraudsters have been sentenced for a credit card scam netting over £150,000 in a "well organised operation".

The criminals defrauded businesses by buying items totalling thousand of pounds over the phone on stolen credit card numbers.

Wayne Eldridge, 42 of Greenhill Park, Harlesden , Jermaine Morrison, 36, of Princess Road, Kilburn , and Lilanan Siton, 36, of Mortimer Crescent, Kilburn, were sentenced on Thursday (April 7) at Harrow Crown Court , after pleading guilty to fraud-related offences.

Chris Barclay, 28, of no fixed abode, had already been sentenced on March 8 after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing at the same court.

Officers launched a year-long investigation in February 2014, after a number of retailers were being defrauded by people exploiting the 'customer not present' function on credit card terminals.

The retailers had no idea that they are not normally protected against fraud if the customer places an order over the phone.

Police found several 'drop' addresses across London and linked around 50 different victims nationwide, which were mainly small independent businesses.

Officers carried out a test delivery on one of the drop addresses used by Eldridge in March 2014.

When Eldridge signed for a package, police searched the address with a warrant, seizing phones that linked him to other numbers identified in the conspiracy.

'Considerable and unrecoverable loss to small businesses'

A year long investigation began which resulted in a series of police raids in March last year.

This led to the arrests of Morrison and Siton, who was caught selling items she had bought fraudulently on auction site eBay. Officers also arrested Barclay who had been signing for goods at an address in Barnet.

Handing down the sentences, His Honour Judge Barklem, said: "This caused a considerable and unrecoverable loss to small business and was a well organised operation."

Morrison pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud between December 2013 and March 2015 on the second day of trial.

He received a 21 months suspended sentence and a 100 hour community order.

Siton pleaded guilty to handling £4,100 of goods. She was given a conditional discharge.

Eldridge and Barclay were found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud for their role in signing for the packages in false names.

Barclay was jailed for eight months and Eldridge received a 22-week sentence suspended for 12 months.

Morrison and Siton are now subject to Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings and over £20,000 of goods have been restored to victims across the United Kingdom.