Before-and-after police mugshots show a callous conman posing with his new £10,000 hair transplant - after he duped a confused old couple out of their own home and stole their life savings.
Syed Bukhari, 38, had masqueraded as a customer services advisor for a bank to persuade the victims to hand over their confidential details before using them to sell their £150,000 property without their knowledge.
The husband, 80, a former Merchant navyman and his wife, 81, who both have dementia trusted Bukhari as they genuinely believed he was 'Gerry from the bank' who worked at their local Lloyds branch in Blackpool.
He had falsely told them there had been 'fraudulent transactions' on their bank accounts and he vowed to help them warning their home could be at risk of repossession.
But by the time police unravelled the scam, the victims' home in Fulwood, near Preston which they had lived in for 40 years had been sold to a private company at a knockdown price and they lost their life savings of £150,000.
Bukhari had used some of the stolen cash to fly business class to Dubai and splurge £11,000 on a stay at a luxury hotel and also spent tens of thousands of pounds on the cosmetic implants procedure for his receding hairline plus Rolex watches, jewellery, designer clothes, bags and mobile phones. He was arrested when officers met an Emirates flight at Manchester Airport from Dubai after inquiries revealed he had set up multiple bank accounts in the couple's name, redirected their mail and diverted the telephone landline and attempted to take a £40,000 bank loan.
Today as Bukhari began almost eight years in jail, police said he may have been part of a gang targeting OAPs by posing as bank workers claiming their accounts had been compromised. The couple who have four children are still living at their home but their family are fighting a legal battle to get their property back.
Preston Crown Court was told Bukhari began preying on the couple in November 2017 when he contacted the couple under the guise of 'Gerry Patel' from their bank.
The fraud began to unravel in January when the couple's real son contacted police, concerned that his parents had been victims of fraud after seeing letters about various overdrafts they had not applied for.
Detectives started an investigation and it was revealed that the couple had been driven round various banks in Chorley, Blackburn and Manchester.
New accounts had been opened, requests were made to reactivate frozen accounts or to transfer various sums of money between accounts, all the while believing that 'Gerry from the bank' was helping them from losing their home
It was also found that their house - where they had lived for 40 years - had been sold on December 21 to a private company without their knowledge for less than the market value.
Bukhari was identified as a suspect and officers discovered he had made six trips to Dubai and Pakistan in three months often travelling in first and business class.
He was traced to Dubai and was arrested on February 11 when police found him in a business class seat on an Emirates flight at Manchester Airport.He was found to be in possession of the couple's identity documents and documentation relating to them and the fraudulent accounts.
Bukhari admitted fraud at an earlier hearing. He was jailed for seven years and 11 months.
