‘The bank of terror’
Pensioner victims of IS extremists were conned with cold calls, court told Couple aged 94 and 96 targeted and woman, 76, handed over £130,000
FIVE men conned pensioners as old as 96 out of more than £160,000 to fund Islamic State, a court heard yesterday.
The suspects – three of whom are students at London universities – are alleged to have tricked their victims into handing over their savings by posing as police officers over the phone.
The victims include a 73-year-old woman from Cornwall who was conned into parting with £130,000. She developed serious pneumonia after realising she had been tricked and needed hospital treatment.
Others targeted were a couple aged 94 and 96 from Canterbury in Kent, an 89-year-old from Bedfordshire, an 84-year-old from Cornwall and an elderly couple from Dorset.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court, prosecutor Edward Aydin described it as financial terrorism ‘on an industrial scale’. He said the ‘sophisticated criminal network’ was ‘a threat to the national security of this country’.
Mr Aydin told the court: ‘Terrorism overall takes a new form in 2015 – it’s not on the battlefield.
‘These people before you, they are the bank of terror. They are not small fry, they are deadly and dangerous.’
Westminster University student Makhzumi Abukar, 23, Southbank University engineering student Sakaria Aden, 21, London Metropolitan University student Mohamed Dahir, 22, and Yasser Abukar, 23, who are all from North London, and Ibrahim Anderson, 38, from Luton, appeared in court.
The suspects allegedly used a scam called ‘vishing’ to trick their victims out of thousands of pounds. Masquerading as police officers, they cold- called their elderly victims and told them they had been victims of fraud, the court heard.
To reassure them, one of the suspects would advise their targets to call 999 for proof that the calls was genuine, it was claimed.
Once their victims had hung up, one of the suspects allegedly used a device to keep the line open while the victims thought they were dialling 999.
But instead of connecting to a police operator, the victims unwittingly handed over their bank details, the court heard. The victims were persuaded to transfer their savings into an account run by the scammers or told to withdraw cash and hand it over to a ‘courier’ who claimed it would be taken to a police station as ‘evidence’, it was said.
Mr Aydin added: ‘It is believed that the proceeds are being used to fund and facilitate the travel of UK nationals to Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamic State. These funds are used to buy weapons and bullets.
‘Due to the nature of the offending, the victims are generally elderly and vulnerable. Many have impairments to sight, vision and/or mobility.’
Mr Aydin said the scam ‘ scared the living daylights’ out of the victims, who were mainly in their 80s and 90s.
The defendants appeared in the dock dressed in sweatshirts and jogging bottoms. One wore a black anorak. Ginger-haired Anderson, whose wife is heavily pregnant, stood throughout the proceedings.
All are charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud people between February 15, 2014, and May 6 this year. The men, all sporting beards, spoke only to confirm their names and addresses during the preliminary hearing.
District Judge John Zani remanded them into custody and ordered them to appear at the Old Bailey on May 21. He said: ‘This is a very serious allegation that each of you faces.’
A further alleged co-conspirator, Mohammed Sharif Abokar, 27, from Islington, North London, appeared before Dunstable Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
A 32-year- old woman, who has not been named, was also arrested by counter-terrorism police during a series of co- ordinated raids on Wednesday. She was later bailed.