Elliot Castro

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Elliot Castro's first glimpse of a fraudulent luxury lifestyle began at age 7 when Elliot sneaked into first class on a flight to Chile. In his adolescent years, he progressed to using blank train tickets to forge travel tickets which allowed him to keep the travel fare given to him by his Mum to get to school. However, the big break in Elliot's career in fraud came when he began work in a call center. Here he found he has access to people's personal information such as bank details, dates of birth and even their security questions. Elliot was able to use these details to request new cards and carry out fraudulent transactions. He used the cards to fund an extravagant and exciting lifestyle; traveling first class across the world, mixing with the rich and famous, buying designer clothing, even sailing round the Caribbean on a private 50 foot yacht at one point.

Amazingly, although Elliot had many scrapes with the law, and was cautioned on more than one occasion he managed to evade any serious conviction for almost five years. Elliot was eventually caught by DC Ralph Eastgate who, following a five year chase around the world, managed to compile a list of charges against him, leading to Elliot being sentenced to two and a half years in prison. He was only 21 years old.

Having been released from prison in 2004, Elliot now lives in Glasgow, Scotland, and is an independent Fraud Prevention Consultant with a host of private firms, financial institutions, and law enforcement departments as well as appearing regularly on TV and radio as a guest on consumer affairs and news programs.

Elliot has written about his experiences in the book entitled 'Other People's Money' (Pan MacMillan). The book was recently published in paperback edition, and Cowboy Films (Last King of Scotland) have bought the rights to the script.