A family of fraudsters who tricked pensioners out of £1.3 million and spent the money on luxury cars have been jailed for more than 20 years in total.
The “ferociously greedy” Mohammed family from Glasgow cold-called victims posing as fraud advisers from Visa or high-street banks and told people they had been targeted in a suspected scam.
Led by Atif Mohammed, 25, the family then invited their victims to hang up and redial their own bank’s fraud team themselves to gain their trust. But they stayed on the line, intercepted the return call and handed the phone to another family member to pose as a legitimate bank official.
At least 42 elderly and vulnerable people from across the UK were encouraged to transfer their savings – up to £129,000 in one case – into another account.
The fraudsters spent the money “like water” – on cars including a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Land Rover, a Ferrari and a Mercedes. It also funded designer bags, gold, expensive watches, high-stakes gambling ventures and trips abroad, including repeat visits to Dubai where they bought a house.
The Mohammeds, who are originally from Pakistan, called thousands of people using dozens of phones over 13 months as part of the “vishing” voice-phishing scam.
Most of the victims will not get their money back because banks do not view transactions where people willingly transfer money as the company’s fault.
Seven of the family, of Crosshill, Glasgow, were jailed for the crimes, committed between December, 2013, and January, 2015.
Sentencing them at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Barry Cotter QC said: “You are all guilty of involvement in a large-scale fraud to a greater or lesser degree. It involved persuading people by telephone to transfer large sums of money to bank accounts operated by yourselves.
“Those who fell for it tended to be the more unworldly and naive. Whilst they were not specifically targeted as vulnerable, it is obvious that it was people who did not have a suspicion that many people would have who were victims.”
Judge Cotter added: “A clear message needs to be sent out to anyone engaged in this that they will receive a significant custodial sentence.”
Mohammed, 25, was jailed for six years. His cousin, Asif Ali, 33, who has 24 previous convictions, was jailed for five years and 10 months, three months of which was for a separate mortgage fraud.
Their cousins, brothers Shabeer Ahmed, 25 and Shakeel Ahmed, 21, were jailed for five years and two months and three and a half years respectively. They had all admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. Atif’s brother, Saif Mohammed, 21, admitted concealing, disguising, transferring or converting criminal property and was jailed for a year.
The scammers were fed stolen contact details by call centre worker 26-year-old Zoe Latif, who was “manipulated” by then-boyfriend Atif, the court heard. The former university student was handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting encouraging or assisting indictable offences.
Atif and Saif’s mother Shameem Ali Mohammed, 44, was found guilty of possessing criminal property and was jailed for two years.
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