Disappeared
A CONMAN who stole an old couple’s home to fund his £10,000 hair transplant has been told to repay £300,000.
Syed Bukhari, 38, posed as a bank worker named Gerry to persuade his victims to give him their details.
He then sold the dementia sufferers’ £200,000 home without telling them.
Bukhari had earned the trust of the frail couple – an 83-year-old former merchant seaman and his wife, 84 – by warning them of “fraudulent transactions” on their account.
By the time police uncovered the scam, Bukhari had sold their home in Fulwood, Lancs, to a private firm for £160,000. They also lost their £150,000 life savings.
Their son Graham Worsnopp, 57, said: “If someone had made a drama on TV, people wouldn’t believe it.”
Bukhari used some of the stolen cash to fly business class to Dubai and Pakistan. He blew £11,000 on a hotel stay, rented Lamborghinis and treated himself to a hair transplant.
He also bought Rolex watches, jewellery, clothes, bags and phones. He was jailed for seven years and 11 months at Preston Crown Court in 2018 after admitting fraud.
Bukhari, of Withington, Manchester, has now been ordered to pay back £307,759 within three months or he will face three more years in prison.
An investigation found he had made £561,000 from his crimes after faking his own death in a bid to claim a £1million insurance payout.
His unnamed victims who have four children and seven grandchil