UK - ENRICHMENT - 8 Muslims posed as police officers to con £200,000 from vulnerable and elderly
Fraudsters posed as police officers to con £200,000 from vulnerable and elderly
The men behind the 'large scale conspiracy' have been locked up for more than 30 years
The eight men were handed jail terms at Leeds Crown Court
Eight men have been jailed for a combined total of more than 30 years at Leeds Crown Court for a 'large scale conspiracy' in which they conned vulnerable and elderly people out of more than £200,000.
The group targeted 25 people by calling their landline numbers and convincing the victims their bank accounts had been hacked.
Posing as Metropolitan Police officers, they then asked the victims to hand over large sums of money - usually between £5,000 and £20,000.
They focused their 'tenacious' operation on people in vulnerable situations all over the country, including here in West Yorkshire, and some of the victims had their entire life savings stolen away from them.
Many have still not had all of their money returned to them despite the offences taking place between July 23 and September 15, 2014.
How the conspiracy was carried out
A member of the group would call the victims, with the caller identifying themselves as a police officer from the Metropolitan Police investigating a fraud.
They would then convince victims that their bank account had been compromised and that their money was in danger.
They would gain the trust of the victim and often instruct them to verify who they are by telling them to hang up the call and call the bank (using the number on the back of their card) or 999.
Another suspect would then pretend to be the bank or the 999 operator and the victim would be led to believe they are speaking to genuine bank officials or the police.
What the victims often didn't realise was that the suspects were still on the line and the victim was then told that the bank was involved in the scam. The victim was then convinced to lie to the bank should they be questioned about withdrawals or transfers.
The victim was told not to tell anyone what they were doing as this could jeopardise the investigation, leaving the victim feeling isolated and alone.
The group would then use one of two methods to obtain money from victims:
- The victim would be informed that they needed to go to their bank and withdraw a large amount of cash (usually between £5,000 - £20,000). The offenders would send someone around to the victim’s house to collect the cash. Victims were told that the person collecting the money was also a police officer.
- The victim was told that they needed to transfer a large amount of money (again, usually between £5,000 - £20,000) to another bank account provided by the suspect. Victims were given an account holder’s name, account number and sort code.
The scheme was uncovered by the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit, who also prevented a further four people from being conned out of £28,000.
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Spencer of the Regional Command Team, said: "This was part of an organised criminal network which was involved in a large scale conspiracy to commit fraud targeting elderly and vulnerable people.
'The actions of this group have had a devastating impact on the lives of the victims'
"The criminals were very tenacious when committing their crimes. They would often call victims several times within a short space of time and would regularly check up on the status of transfers.
"Some reported how they were contacted by several different aliases of police officers or bank officials in an attempt to further engage with them."
"The actions of this group have had a devastating impact on the lives of the victims. The group abused the often trusting nature of people to defraud them out of large sums of money – often their life savings. Some of the victims have not had all of their money back.
"Thanks, however, to the detailed and thorough investigation by my team, and in particular Detective Constable Heather Shearer, the nine have been brought to justice and most of them now have time in prison to consider the consequences of their actions and the impact on the people they have defrauded.
"We know that often the reporting of these types of offences is low – and I would urge anyone who has been the victim of this type of offence but who hasn't reported it to call police."
The eight men were jailed for a total of more than 30 years for the following offences:
- Mahbub Aziz, 24, of Walden Street, London pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years.
- Shahidur Ali, 24, of Byng Street, London pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to six and a half years
- Mohammed Hadi, 34, of Uamvar Street, London was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and acquiring criminal property - he was sentenced to eight years
- Mohammed Noor, 23, of Crowndale Road, London admitted conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to 21 months
- Mohammed Naahe, 50, of Jodrell Road, London admitted conspiracy to defraud, acquiring criminal property, entering into a money laundering arrangement and possession of an article to be used in fraud - he was sentenced to seven years, two months
- Syed Ahmed, 35, of Oban Street, Tower Hamlets, admitted conspiracy to defraud and acquiring criminal property and was sentenced to nine months
- Mohammed Haque, 43, of an address off Longlands Road in Sidcup was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to two years, three months
Shah Abdal, 46, of White Horse Road, London, was found guilty of acquiring criminal property and was sentenced to two and a half years
A ninth man, 21-year-old Ismail Hoque, of Osbourne Street, Oldham admitted acquiring criminal property and was sentenced to eight months suspended for 12 months, with 16 hours unpaid community work.
For more information on how to protect yourself from bank and online fraud visit the West Yorkshire Police website.
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