Syam Hussain, 24, of Scarle Road, Wembley, London, and Muhammad Talukdar, 22, of Stepney Way, London, were both sentenced to eight months imprisonment.

This trial followed a large-scale Cumbria Police and West Mercia Police investigation into fraud offences that took place between April and June 2016 across several counties, and saw eight defendants convicted earlier this year (February 2019), with five of those jailed for a total of more than 21 years for their involvement in this scam.

Victims were called on their landlines by individuals posing as police officers investigating fraud at a local banking branch and asked to hand over significant amounts of money.

Hussain and Talukdar’s roles in this fraud saw them facilitate the laundering of money stolen from elderly victims in Cumbria and Worcestershire.

Talukdar did so by providing his bank account details and access to his online banking to other members of the gang, accepting cash in return for handing over control of his account. Meanwhile Hussain was complicit in providing bank account details to other members of the gang which were given to elderly victims under the guise of being a ‘safe police account’.

This was a persuasive scam that saw over 50 victims targeted, and of those, 15 were convinced to hand over money, with a total of over £200,000 being stolen.