How do you like those Apples? UK glamour model caught red handed trying to buy iPads using 12 cloned American Express in Italian shopping spree

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Chloe Phelan, 18, has been given an 16 month suspended after being caught on a shopping spree using a dozen cloned credit card

A British glamour model has been given a 16 month suspended sentence by an Italian court after being caught red handed on a shopping spree using a dozen cloned credit cards.

Chloe Phelan, 18, from south-west London, who has appeared topless in several lads mags and is also a lingerie model, was caught by police as she and her accomplice Issah Faisal Yusuf, 21, used the credit cards in an Apple store.

Suspicious staff had called police after they tried to buy iPads, but the transaction did not go through and they then panicked and fled, as an alert was flashed to other shops in the retail outlet where they were.

The pair, both from London, had arrived in Rome on a Ryanair flight and were booked to leave the same day they arrived after carrying out the spree which involved twelve cloned American Express cards.

When officers stopped them they found shopping bags containing more than 3,000 euros (£2,390) worth of items including clothes, electrical goods and perfume.

Both appeared before a judge in a fast track hearing at Rome's main court and agreed a plea bargain deal which saw them given a reduced sentence and they were immediately left Italy and headed for Britain.

A police spokesman in Rome said: 'We were called by staff at the Apple Store and when we got to the centre we quickly located the couple. 

'The girl burst into tears when we stopped her and told her what she was being arrested for.

'She claimed the cards were hers and had been given to her by her agent but they were all cloned American Express credit cards that belonged to several other Italian people.

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Phelan is currently signed to a Surrey based model agency called Charles and Ko

'At the court hearing she told the judge she was a model and that she had no idea the cards were cloned. She insisted they had been given to her by her manager.

'They had arrived in Rome on the first flight from London and were due out the same day on the last flight - the intention was to spend as much as possible using the cloned credit cards.'

Phelan is currently signed to a Surrey based model agency called Charles and Ko.

Sources said she was also due to appear on a BBC3 show later this year called South Side Stories.

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Suspicious staff had called police after they tried to buy iPads, but the transaction did not go through and they then panicked and fled, as an alert was flashed to other shops in the retail outlet where they were (file photo)