THE brains behind Britain's biggest credit card fraud who was jailed for nine years on Tuesday lived with his girlfriend in a modest home in Chester Road, Watford.

Sunil Mahtani, 26, of Chester Road, Watford, downloaded 8,790 credit card numbers when he was processing payments from passengers using the Heathrow Express rail link.

Fake cards were made to fleece £2,021,450 from 847 card holders across Europe.

Mahtani, an IT expert, spent thousands of pounds on jewellery and clothes for Elizabeth Ryan, with whom he shared a home.

The court heard he had an inferiority complex about her because of her well-paid job as a city banker. She even owned the home they lived in.

Mahtani's accomplices Shajahan Miah and Shaidul Rahim, also both 26, were both jailed for four years each.

Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard the gang stood to make £20million from the three year fraud.

Mahtani got the job at Checkline Plc, the company which processed transactions for Heathrow Express through his uncle Suresh Mirpuri who was the managing director.

The three men had 7,822 credit card details either handwritten on lists, printed on paper, or stored on various files on computers.

Mahtani had also admitted two counts of possession of indecent images of children.

He was given seven years for the credit card con with two years consecutive for the indecent images.