A couple who targeted gym-goers’ bank cards to fuel their lavish lifestyle, blowing cash on trips to Dubai and the Amalfi Coast, have been jailed.
Ashley Singh, 39, and Sophie Bruyea, 20, targeted 18 victims as they worked their way through lockers at several gyms across London and the south-east in a year-long crime spree.
The devious pair maxed out the stolen credit cards as they splashed out at designer stores, including Prada, and even bought a pedigree puppy.
Were you a victim of Singh and Bruyea’s crimes? eirian.prosser@dailymail.co.uk
On social media Bruyea would flaunt their luxury life, sharing photos of themselves posing next to swimming pools, driving a luxury motor and standing in front of an aquarium at Burj Al Arab – dubbed Dubai’s most iconic hotel.
The glamorous couple were finally caught on January 27 last year and were arrested at Gatwick Airport after returning from Paris with around £1,700 of designer goods.
Their 18 victims suffered huge stress and financial loss as a result of their ‘wicked’ crimes, Croydon Crown Court heard.
The couple would visit the gyms and rifle through lockers where gymgoers bank cards and even SIM cards were stolen.
The judge described the impact their ‘wide-ranging spree’ had on their victims, many of them professionals, who no longer felt safe around strangers.
There were 18 fraud reports in total, with 14 in the Metropolitan area, one from Sussex, one from Hertfordshire and two reports from Cambridgeshire.
Singh and Bruyea, of Widmore Road, Bromley, south London, were convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation between January 2022 and January 2023.
Singh was jailed for three years while Bruyea was sentenced to 20 months at a young offenders’ institute, suspended for two years.
She was also sentenced to a rehabilitation programme and 120 hours unpaid work.
The couple would regularly share their luxury lifestyle – funded by their victim’s cash – on social media.
On one occasion, the pair took a trip to Dubai’s Aura Skypool. Access to the rooftop pool costs anywhere between £60 and £100 with a minimum spend of £214 per person on food and drink.
Other photos show the couple dining out at an outdoor steak restaurant flaunting their designer bags on the table as they posed for a photo.
In another image, Bruyea is seen posing in a black leather bikini on a sunny beach in Croatia, wearing Louis Vuitton sliders worth £525.
In one shot posted to Facebook, the couple are seen kissing at an airport. Bruyea is seen holding onto a Louis Vuitton roll-on suit case, which can cost up to £2,570, with a Christian Dior tote bag, worth £2,500, draped over her hand.
Singh, wearing a black cap, appears to have a Keepall Louis Vuitton bag across his body, worth £2,020, paired with a black t-shirt, also from the designer and thought to be worth around £700.
Her partner, wearing a black cap, has another bag from the French designer across his body.
On Bruyea’s TikTok account she showed off her life being a ‘dog mum’ in her twenties, sharing videos of her two pedigree dogs, captioning the clip ‘best gifts I’ve ever got was you two’.
The dogs are seen sitting in designer bags, lying on Ralph Lauren pillows or snuggled up in Gucci scarfs.
Other videos showed the 20-year-old out at London’s Sexy Fish restaurant – a celebrity hot spot where cocktails cost up to £23 per drink.
Det Con Luis Da Silva, from the Met’s economic crime team that investigated this case, said: ‘We know Londoners are worried about theft. It’s a horrible crime, and it causes a lot of stress, pain, and financial loss.
‘That’s why we take this crime seriously and a whole team of us were committed to catching Singh and Bruyea.
‘You couldn’t fail to be moved by the devastating impact their callous behaviour had on people, and we hope that by catching them this offers victims a little bit of solace.
‘I would urge anyone who has had something stolen to get in touch, because we do want to drive down this crime and go after those who target the public.
‘We will now look to forfeit the proceeds of their crimes to try and help compensate those who went through this.’
The pair were first noticed by a lone police officer who had noticed a pattern and flagged it to experts in economic crime.
Police officers based in Lewisham went on to trace the pair’s phones, cars and faces on CCTV linking all the crimes together.