A gang of nine men targeted elderly victims by pretending to be police officers in a fraud worth nearly £330,000.
The scam involved calling people, impersonating police, and telling them that they were investigating fraudulent activity on their bank accounts. They would then ask the victims to withdraw large sums of money, convincing them it was part of the investigation, before either sending a "courier" to collect the cash or transferring the money to the account of a "financial mule".
Between March 1 2016 and November 29 2016, the gang were able to run the scam 34 times, earning them £215,641 and a further £122,445 in unsuccessful attempts, totalling £328,086.
The gang members would predominantly target areas in London and Hertfordshire, including Harrow and the majority of their victims were elderly. The phone scams were also carried out in Surrey, Kent, Bedfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and the Thames Valley area.
Hertfordshire Constabulary investigated reports of the scams, processing a number of warrants which were executed in November 2016.
The raids led to charges being brought against nine members of the gang, six of whom were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, with the three others charged with money laundering. The men were all found guilty following a five-week trial at St Alban's Crown Court on August 7.
On Friday (September 21), six members of the gang were sentenced to a total of 27 and a half years in prison, while three were given suspended sentences.
Sheikh Hussain, Nahid Uddin and Mohammed Abdul Khaled, all aged 24, were sentenced to four years in prison. Masum Uddin, 23, was handed a seven-year prison sentence. Mohammed Abdulahi, 22 was sentenced to six years and six months imprisonment, for acting as a courier to collect the fraudulently obtained cash from elderly victims.
Fellow courier Mushahid Miah, 24, was sentenced to two years in prison. Dedar Ali, aged 24, was handed a six-month suspended prison sentence for money laundering. Abdul Basit Khan, 26 and Abdalla Abdalla, 27, both received the same suspended sentence, but were also ordered to carry out 120 hours unpaid work.
