After realising how easy it was to encash plastic money, Mourise obtained credit cards for several people before embarking on the cheating spree with his accomplices.

All the four managed to give the slip for one-and-half years and cheated reputed banks including ICICI, HSBC, Citi Bank, SBI, Deutsche, HDFC, American Express, Centurion and ABN Amro banks to the tune of Rs six crore and spent the money lavishly.

According to sources, the four used to take a house on rent, prepare fake salary slips, voter’s identity cards and other documents and forge bank and credit card statements to get the cards. They used to apply for the cards using different names but giving the same address.

After obtaining the cards, the members were prompt in paying installments initially. Soon, they used to default and promptly vacate the house. Recovery agents from the banks would realise the fraud when they visited the house to find it locked.

D’Souza had spent Rs three lakh to cure his ailing father in Puttur. However, his father passed away some months back. D’Souza was a ‘generous’ host as he used to spend huge sums on his relatives and friends whenever they used to come to Bangalore, police said. 

A police officer on condition of anonymity said, one of the credit cards seized belonged to D’Souza’s girlfriend, who is a television and film artiste. He however refused to disclose her name. The police are now verifying whether the actress was also involved, he added.