A reformed con artist from Cheetham Hill has spoken about his double life as an international fraudster, and how he pulled off an elaborate $2m jewellery heist.
48-year-old Saqib Mumtaz and his accomplices persuaded jewellers Bijan that the brother of the Sultan of Brunei was planning a lavish wedding and was in the market for precious stones.
Saqib and his fellow fraudsters were eventually caught and jailed and says that he has turned over a new leaf. His jewellery heist scam involved telling the Beverley Hills-based jewellers the ‘prince’ wanted to purchase a selection of watches and necklaces to wear at a wedding. Staff were completely blindsided flew to London and handed over a bag of jewellery to the fraudsters, which was never seen again.
In his interview with Liverpool Echo, he said, “I was living a double life - at home I was a good little Asian lad who was studying and working part time. We found out the Sultan of Brunei had been there (the jewellers) a few months before on a shopping spree, so I thought let's give them a call. Before we did, we gained as much information as we could - it took weeks and when we rang the jewellers we said we are interested in a selection of jewellery. We said we’re having a wedding in England and we wanted them to come here.
We said we would arrange and pay for everything and asked could they bring a selection of jewellery. I got arrested and put on remand. In the end, I knew they were going to get me. You can’t go through the years of doing what we did and not paying for it. It’s just that when you’re young, you think you’re invincible.
