£9k SCAM MAN TO PAY BACK JUST
A MAN who helped con a vulnerable 84-year-old widow out of £30,000 has been ordered to pay back just £1.
Pamela Crockett, of Lisvane, Cardiff, lost thousands of pounds of her savings after a man pretending to be a police officer from New Scotland Yard instructed her to pay funds into three bank accounts.
Sentencing Mohammed Ahmed, Kamrul Chowdhury and Mohammed Hussain in August, Judge Richard Williams noted that none of the defendants were involved in the phone calls, but their involvement was allowing their bank accounts to be used.
The three men, from Manchester and Scunthorpe, admitted acquiring criminal property by allowing their bank accounts to be used in the scam and were jailed.
Chowdhury was jailed for 15 months, Ahmed for 13 months and Hussain for eight months. The case was listed before Judge Richard Williams at Cardiff Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act yesterday.
Mr Williams told the court the amount of benefit to Mohammed Ahmed, 23, of Croft Street in Hyde, was agreed with his defence counsel Helen Longworthy at £9,450. “The position is that there are no identified assets at this stage,” Mr Williams said.
Ahmed was given 28 days to pay back a nominal £1 fee.
Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings against Kamrul Chowdhury, 28, of Avenue Vivian, Scunthorpe, and Mohammed Hussain, 29, of Frances Street, Scunthorpe, were adjourned pending further inquiries into their assets.
The pair will appear at Cardiff Crown Court in person or via video link on December 17.
At the sentencing hearing in August, Joanna James, prosecuting, told the court Mrs Crockett received a call from a man pretending to be a police officer from New Scotland Yard.
The court heard she was told two men from eastern Europe had taken money from her bank account and gave her a number to call for further information.
She called the number and did not get a response, but later received a phone call from a man who claimed he was a fraud investigator named Peter.
The court heard Mrs Crockett, now 85, had spent years saving money with her late husband.
She was told by the man who called himself Peter she would need to pay money into three separate accounts in order to help police catch the men.
Mrs Crockett paid £9,450 into a bank account on June 30, 2016, and then the same amount into another account the next day.
She paid £15,000 into a third account three days later.
Mrs Crockett realised she may have been the victim of a scam when she did not hear from Peter again and could no longer reach him on the number he had given. When she contacted the police, they traced the accounts she had paid into to the three defendants, with Ahmed and Chowdury each receiving £9,450 and Hussain £15,000.
The court heard she was diagnosed with breast cancer and was going through treatment in 2016.
Prosecutors said Barclays initially reimbursed her but took the money away again following an internal investigation.