Con man who lied about meeting Bin Laden jailed

A con man who pretended to have met Osama bin Laden was yesterday jailed for 13 years for a £1.1million ebay scam.

Hassan Butt, 38, from Manchester, sold nonexistent electrical goods to about 3,000 customers via the online marketplace before Christmas 2014.

When the goods did not arrive, complaints flooded in and ebay alerted police.

Website bosses discovered Butt’s selfconfessed links to Islamic terrorism and feared the money would be used to fund that, Manchester Crown Court heard.

However, when called as a witness in a 2008 trial, Butt admitted he was a “professional liar” who would say “absolutely anything” to make money.

He was convicted of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering.

Sentencing him, Judge Anthony Cross QC told him: “I find it almost impossible to decide when you speak whether or not the truth is falling from your lips.”