They allegedly stole from the rich to buy nothing but the best for themselves.

Toronto police laid 150 fraud-related charges against four people Tuesday alleging they had used a scanner installed at an upscale downtown spa to steal nearly half a million dollars from unsuspecting clients.

Credit card information was stolen from 216 clients of the Elmwood Spa in the spring and summer of 2008, police said at a press conference Tuesday.

"Unsuspecting clients, they would have no way of knowing that their data was being compromised. So as anyone was sliding the credit along here that magnetic information was being recorded by the suspects on a little chip that was embedded in this device," said Det. Sgt. Niels Sondergaard.

It is also alleged that the thieves went back to the doctored scanners to remodify them, police said.

Lavish spending sprees

They used the stolen information to make new credit cards, and then went on lavish spending sprees for designer clothing, laptop computers and other merchandise, racking up $485,000 in bills for 1,241 purchases.

They kept some of the loot for themselves and sold the rest on the internet.

Police also allege that some of the stolen cash was used to set up and furnish a spa — Jung Spa on Danforth Ave.

Last week police raided Jung Spa and two condominiums, seizing $285,000 in property, some of which was displayed at Tuesday's press conference.

"Their lifestyle included luxurious spending sprees, whether it be at high-end food stores [or] shopping at your exclusive businesses on Bloor Street, whether it's Holt Renfrew, Prada, stuff like that," Det. Const. Todd Hall said.

Investigation began in July

The investigation began last July after a credit card company contacted Elmwood to report it had uncovered fraudulent activity.

"We deeply regret the theft of our customers' information," Marie Picton, executive manager of spa services, said in a statement Tuesday.

Police said some of the fraudulent credit cards forged with Elmwood data are still in circulation and other businesses may also be compromised.

Charged are Goran Sadic, 44, Filip Djukic, 39, Julia Sung, 25, and Milena Sadic, 41, all of Toronto.

Djukic was charged by police in the 2006 theft of 19th century bejewelled gold slippers, once worn by the nizam of Hyderabad, from the Bata Shoe Museum on Bloor Street W. in downtown Toronto. But that charge was later withdrawn.