Five-year prison sentence for fraudster who posed as police officer

Posted to News on Tuesday, July 2, 2024 Share:

A MAN from West London has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment after attempting to steal £115,730 from elderly victims by posing as a police officer and tricking them into handing over their money. The sentencing at Inner London Crown Court follows on from an investigation conducted by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, the specialist banking industry-sponsored policing unit.

In January 2020, Mohammed Ali conspired with others to commit fraud by contacting bank customers and pretending to be a police officer. They would then trick the customers by purporting to be investigating compromised bank accounts, for example by suggesting that members of staff at local branches were stealing money from customer accounts.

One victim was convinced to go to their bank branch and withdraw £5,000 from their account. The victim then handed their money over to a fraudulent courier arranged by Ali, who then took the money on the basis that this was for safe keeping.

During the investigation process, officers from the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (which involves specialists from both the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police) were able to obtain phones that Ali had used to make the fraudulent calls to bank customers. Officers discovered hundreds of potential victims’ phone numbers on these devices. While most of those called were not tricked into being scammed, multiple people were conned into handing over between £5,000 and £8,800. A grand total of £26,000 was stolen.

The average age of the victims was 77 years old. Ali’s eldest victim was 93.

Detective Constable Ben O’Shea said: “Mohammed Ali’s actions were reprehensible. Through sheer manipulation, he was able to target customers and trick them into thinking he was there to protect them, when in fact he was abusing their trust in order to be able to callously steal their money.”

O’Shea added: “Fraud like this can have a devastating impact on victims both emotionally and psychologically. Thankfully, by working with the banking and finance industry, we were able to put a stop to this criminal activity. This sentencing should scare criminals who seek to financially benefit from crime. You will be stopped, and you will face justice.”

UK Finance data shows that, in 2023, all types of impersonation scams resulted in £136.2 million of fraud losses. Scams specifically involving impersonation of police or bank staff resulted in fraud losses of £78.9 million.