Monday, 30 November 2009

• Prev
• Next

OMG! Ricky Gervais: I helped bring down £200,000 fraudsters

Crooks caught out by fake ID

Ricky Gervais says the incident took place several years ago

Ricky Gervais has revealed that he was once the target of a £200,000 fraud scam.

A criminal gang attempted to transfer cash from the comedian's bank account to buy gold.

But the crooks were caught out when they went to collect the bullion using fake ID that featured a picture of Ricky's Office character David Brent.

‘I [asked the officer], "How did they think they were going to get away with it?"' he explains. 

‘He said, "They normally get a passport from either a dead man or steal one and replace it with your details and your picture."

‘He showed me this passport. We were laughing for ten minutes. All they did was cut out the picture on the first series of The Office DVD!'

Ricky, 48 - who gave his bank permission to involve police in the investigation - eventually got all his money back. The fraudsters were jailed.

‘Can you imagine who was in charge of getting the photo?' he says on his new podcast The Ricky Gervais Guide to Law & Order.

‘"Dave, you're doing so and so. Julie you're on the inside. Bertie - can you get a picture? What are you going to HMV for?"'

Get more news like this every week. Subscribe to Now magazine and save 30%>>