Moment police raid SIM farm hiding in terraced house as they make 'largest haul of stolen credit card details ever recovered'

Published: 11:28 EDT, 3 November 2026 | Updated: 11:28 EDT, 3 November 2026 This is the moment police raided a massive SIM farm hidden inside a terraced house as a part of the 'largest haul of stolen credit card details ever recovered'. In the footage, officers from the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit - a banking industry-funded police unit - smashed down the door of an East Midlands home in an early-morning raid.Once inside the ordinary terrace, police found bin bags filled with hundreds of brand new SIM cards from different mobile providers that were still to be snapped out of their casing, along with cardboard boxes stacked with SIM terminals and wiring.The seized items confirmed officers' suspicions that the property was being used as a SIM farm. SIM farms are devices capable of housing thousands of SIM cards, allowing criminals to operate large numbers of mobile connections simultaneously in a bid to deceive victims into giving up sensitive personal information - commonly known as 'phishing'. The cards are often shoplifted from displays found in supermarkets and post offices. Police suspected the home was one of many such farms across the country and, with the help of intelligence from VodafoneThree, the National Crime Agency (NCA) was able to pinpoint the location of the suspected factories - leading to the arrest of eight people and the seizure of cash and equipment.So far, the operation has recovered more than one million compromised card details in what the NCA believe is potentially the UK’s largest ever haul. In the footage, officers from the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit - a banking industry-funded police unit - smashed down the door of an East Midlands home in an early-morning raid at a suspected SIM farm Pictured: A SIM farm seized from the property in the East Midlands. SIM farms are devices capable of housing thousands of SIM cards, allowing criminals to operate large numbers of mobile connections simultaneously in a bid to deceive victimsAndrew Harding is Deputy Head of Fraud Threat Leadership at the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), part of the NCA. He explained how the criminal economy extends far beyond the individuals operating the SIM farms.Mr Harding described organised networks in which different criminals specialise in harvesting information, handling cryptocurrency and contacting potential victims in a sophisticated operation run by crooks.'There's always a buyer for something. And data is what people want,' he said. SIM farms were criminalised last month in what marks a significant change in the UK's approach to tackling fraud.Now, law enforcement agencies have additional powers to target the infrastructure that underpins a wide range of fraud and cyber-crime offences. The legislation reflects a growing focus on preventing criminal activity at source.However, the crackdown was only made possible through the work of VodafoneThree and the NCA.By identifying patterns of suspected SIM farm activity, VodafoneThree was able to share intelligence with the NCA's Fraud Targeting Cell. A rubbish bag filled with unused SIM cards. The cards are often shoplifted from supermarkets and post officers for use inside the SIM farmsInvestigators then developed the information and passed actionable intelligence to regional policing teams, enabling them to identify suspected criminal premises and carry out enforcement activity.Rachel Andrews, Head of Corporate Security at VodafoneThree, said: 'Fraud cannot be tackled through protection measures alone. We need to go further, using our intelligence and capabilities to identify and disrupt the infrastructure that allows organised criminals to operate at scale.'This collaboration with the NCA shows what can be achieved when industry and law enforcement combine their strengths, disrupting criminal activity closer to its source and preventing harm before it reaches customers and the wider public.'Nick Sharp, Deputy Director of Fraud in the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA, said: 'These arrests highlight the impact of close collaboration between law enforcement and industry. Intelligence shared by VodafoneThree enabled us to disrupt suspected criminal activity and recover more than one million compromised card details.'SIM farms are a key enabler of large-scale fraud, allowing criminals to create huge numbers of fake online accounts and target victims in huge quantities with minimal effort.'The introduction of new offences covering the possession and supply of SIM farms strengthens our ability to protect the public from fraud. The NCA will continue to work with partners across policing and industry to disrupt the criminals behind this offending.'