£1m scammer conned elderly in banking fraud

A ‘WICKED’ conman orchestrated a complex banking scam from a Salford flat – with pensioners across the country swindled out of more than £1.5m amid a wider conspiracy.

- CHRIS SLATER

Azeem Mohammed, 33, played a ‘leading role’ in the operation, which targeted vulnerable elderly people.

Evil scammers used a number of elaborate rouses, including using various phone numbers manned by different members of the group – and fake bank websites – to convince their victims they were fraud investigators from high street banks such as HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Nationwide. They claimed people’s accounts were ‘under attack’.

Elderly and often frail victims were put under ‘relentless pressure’, contacted several times a day for long periods of time. In some cases, people were hounded for months.

Victims were tricked into handing over personal information; sending copies of ID documents; buying mobile phones; installing software on their laptops which allowed fraudsters to ‘take control’; setting up new bank accounts; and transferring huge sums – often their life savings – to new accounts.

“Victims were also persuaded not to speak to their local bank branch, friends or family about this breach out of fear that it would cause them more financial difficulty,” Tyrone Scott, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court.