Fraudsters posed as Police Officers in £400k Scam on Elderly

Two men from London have been jailed for pretending to be police officers to defraud elderly victims of over £400,000.

Mohammed Zaman Ahmed and Kawsar Ahmed were part of an organised criminal gang that ran its operations from various offices in London but targeted different parts of England in more than 7,500 calls.

Once they engaged a victim, the duo pretended to be the police and explained they were conducting a fraud investigation into counterfeit currency.

The defendants claimed the bogus money had been identified as being transferred through the victim’s bank accounts.

The defendants encouraged the victims to withdraw money from their accounts and hand it over to a “courier” sent by the “police”.

Other gang members were used to provide authenticity checks, pretending to be senior police officers or bank officials.

They arranged for taxis to take the victims – often elderly – to their banks to withdraw the money.

The gang were aware that banks follow protocols when dealing with elderly or vulnerable customers who were trying to withdraw large sums of cash.

Therefore, they claimed bank staff or local police may be involved in the counterfeit currency offences and coached the victims about how to answer the questions.

The gang defrauded a total of £430,452.

Both men pleaded guilty to courier fraud offences.

Kevin Hansford, of the CPS, said: “These two fraudsters presented themselves in a convincing way to victims, securing the trust of hundreds of elderly people through their lies.

“The sole purpose of this criminal activity was to enrich themselves, at the expense of vulnerable people who badly needed their hard-earned savings and pension income.

“I would like to thank the many victims who supported this prosecution and the hard-working Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire Police who enabled us to prove the case against this gang’s callous criminal enterprise.”

Detective Inspector Matt Phillips from Gloucestershire Police added:

“We’re pleased that these men have now been sentenced for the misery they caused so many vulnerable and elderly people.”

“This result is testimony to the immense hard work from many officers at Gloucestershire Constabulary, who went above and beyond to ensure that we could show just how low these men were willing to stoop.

“I want any gangs who try to target the people in our communities to know that we will not sit back but will actively pursue them for their crimes, not just in Gloucestershire but anywhere in the country.

“I hope that this sentence will bring some peace to the men and women they targeted.”

Mohammed Zaman Ahmed, aged 26, of Kilburn, was jailed for three years and eight months.

Kawsar Ahmed, aged 25, of Lewisham, was jailed for four years.

In the UK in 2022, over £10 million had been lost to courier frauds of this kind.