Boy Lives It Up in a Spree With Dad’s Credit Card
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LONDON — A 16-year-old boy rented private jets with his father’s credit card, treated friends to champagne-and-lobster dinners and conned a loan company into parting with $750,000.
Mark Acklom sought the loan to buy a house in exclusive Dulwich, on a street near former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s suburban home, a London court was told Thursday.
In a three-month spree, Acklom also shopped at Harrods, the upper-crust London department store, and entertained his girlfriend in a $1,000-a-night hotel suite.
One unpaid bill, for Acklom and his guests to fly to Paris, Berne and the Canary Islands, came to nearly $55,000.
Now 18, he admitted theft of the credit card and obtaining money, property and the home loan by deception.
The loan company said it had checked Acklom’s credit-worthiness. It is now re-examining its procedures.
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