Yahoo Finance 'Heartless' Conmen Took £1m From Pensioners
Eight "heartless" conmen have been jailed for fleecing pensioners out of their life savings in a £1m fraud which saw the gang pretend to be police officers to dupe elderly victims.
Some of the cash was spent paying for somebody to travel to Syria, while other funds were spent on foreign holidays and designer clothes.
Among the victims - who were in their 70s, 80s and 90s - was a World War Two veteran, and others who died without seeing the conmen jailed.
Many others were left nearly penniless by the scam because they have not had all their money refunded by banks.
Judge Anujar Dhir, in sentencing the gang - which included the former X Factor contestant Nathan Fagan-Gale - said the "vulnerable" victims were left "shattered" by the gang's crimes.
"You all played a part in a fraud that targeted elderly, vulnerable victims. The youngest of the identified victims was 63 years old. Most of them were in their 80s. The oldest was 94 years old.
"It was a heartless plan with a devastating and lasting impact on the victims. You fleeced your victims of large sums of money. For some of them it was their life savings.
"But their loss was more than that. They lost confidence in their own ability to look after themselves and their own affairs and this contributed to the distress and misery which your victims have endured for the last two years."
The scam saw gang members call their victims and pretend to be investigating bank fraud. The victims were told they needed to hand over their money to "couriers" whom the victims believed were working for the police.
Believing they were helping police investigations, victims were deceived into lying to their family, friends and the bank about what they were doing.
Kenneth Whitaker, who fought at the Battle of Arnhem and was 93 at the time of the fraud, said felt "dumb and stupid" after he had £113,000 stolen from him.
Some 140 victims lost nearly £1m in the scam, although the Metropolitan Police believe many more victims have not come forward.
Commander Dean Haydon, from the Met's Terrorism Command, said officers established the Syria link in the case "early on", but since the money was heavily laundered it was difficult to tell how much made its way into terrorists' hands.
"When we look at what we can prove evidentially, what we knew fairly early on from some unusual banking transactions is that some of the money was used to facilitate an individual who travelled out to Syria," he said.
"But what we can't say is whether any of that money is directly related to terrorism."
The "key player" in the scam, Makhzhumi Abukar, 24, from North London, was jailed for seven years and four months. Mr Fagan-Gayle, 29, from Tower Hamlets was jailed for 20 months.
Yasser Abukar, 24, also from North London, was jailed for six years. Ahmed Ahmed, 23, of North London, was jailed for four years and two months.
Shakaria Aden, 22, a "prolific cash collector" who picked up £154,000, was jailed for six and a half years.
Mohamed Dahir, 23, was jailed for 21 months. Fahim Islam, 21, of East London, was jailed for six years and three months for his role in this and a "strikingly similar" fraud also targeting pensioners.
Anrul Islam, 24, from Dagenham, East London, was jailed for 16 months.
