A POKER player who achieved global fame after winning a prestigious world series competition in Las Vegas allegedly made many thousands of pounds through "fooling the systems" and using false online accounts.
He made "significant sums of money" but allegedly tried to disguise his identity through secretly using different computers and buying private networks to foil security checks, a court heard.
Darren Woods, 29, of Stallingborough Road, Healing, denies 13 fraud offences between January 2007 and January 2012.
His father, Morteza Gharoon, 56, of the same address, denies being jointly concerned with Woods in four of those alleged frauds and another charge of money laundering, through credit billings, on behalf of Woods.
Alasdair Campbell, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court that Woods allegedly made improper use of internet poker sites by pretending to gaming companies that he was somebody else.
"He was able to defeat the sophisticated methods employed by those companies to prevent multiple accounting and collusion," said Mr Campbell.
Woods allegedly used other people's identities to gain commissions above what he would have been allowed to do if he had been using just his own name.
He was a poker player who was "clearly not without talent" and in July 2011, he won a world series of poker games in Las Vegas, scooping winnings of 213,000 dollars. He was made bankrupt in 2006.
His father, an Iranian national, was a successful property investor, with a large portfolio of properties in the Grimsby area.
Woods and Gharoon used the names and details of real people to open accounts with gaming companies and money bookers for online poker games, claimed Mr Campbell.
Woods allegedly "made money" from the fraudulently-opened accounts by playing at the same online poker table at the same time using different identities, giving him an advantage because he would unfairly know the hands of some of the other players.
"This is dishonest," claimed Mr Campbell.
Woods had "so many accounts" in different names that he was able to generate commissions or fees that he would not otherwise have been able to do with just himself.
He was "rewarded" through commission payments from online gaming companies by "channeling money through the gaming site" involved.
"But the problem was that the accounts were in other people's names and that's dishonest," said Mr Campbell.
Woods made £147,266 in commission fees during one period taking in 2010 to 2011.
"He made significant sums of money," said Mr Campbell.
Woods allegedly bought a number of private networks to disguise his online identity and bought different computers in a bid to "fool the systems".
One of the fake identities he allegedly used to an online gaming company was that of his mother, Jacqueline Gharoon, the wife of Morteza Gharoon.
The trial continues.
