A GAMBLER who became an international star after winning a world poker series championships in Las Vegas allegedly dishonestly used the details of other people to open fake online accounts, a court heard.
He signed an e-mail asking for proof of his supposed identity by using a false name and submitted a copy of the other man's passport as part of an alleged con, the court was told.
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.
The prosecution at Sheffield Crown Court claims that Woods allegedly made improper use of internet poker sites by pretending to gaming companies that he was somebody else.
He 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.
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 allegedly used the names and details of real people to open accounts with gaming companies and money bookers for online poker games.
Woods allegedly bought a number of private networks to disguise his online identity and bought different computers in a bid to "fool the systems".
Zoe Adams, a regional security adviser for the Rank Group, told the court that, at the time, the company included a Blue Square online gaming division.
Woods allegedly applied in 2010 to open a poker account in the name of Lloyd Stockley-Bond and a Blue Square manager asked the person by e-mail to provide a copy of his driving licence or passport and proof of his address for security verification.
The prosecution claims that Woods was actually the person who was applying to open the account.
Alasdair Campbell, prosecuting, told the court earlier that Mr Stockley-Bond had known Woods for about 13 years and knew he was a gambler.
He had been to sporting events with Woods and it was not disputed that Mr Stockley-Bond had supplied him with some of his own personal details, said Mr Campbell.
A later e-mail supposedly sent to Blue Square by Mr Stockley-Bond in response to earlier ones from the company was signed "Lloyd" but was actually written by Woods, the prosecution claims.
Woods allegedly sent a copy of a passport supposedly from Mr Stockley-Bond as apparent proof of that person's identity.
If the company had known that the person wanting to open the account was not really Mr Stockley-Bond but Woods, the application would not have been accepted, said Miss Adams.
It would also not have paid bonus credits of 23,478 dollars to the fake account, she added.
The alleged fraud by making false representations to the company happened between October 2010 and April 2011. The account was eventually suspended in November 2011.
The trial continues.
