Fraudster behind Britain’s biggest cyber scam blew £4m on Harrods sprees and parties
‘Villa had live-in chefs and valets’
THE mastermind behind Britain’s biggest ever cyber scam blew £4million on shopping sprees at Harrods, parties with pop stars and luxury holidays to Dubai, a court has heard.
Feezan Choudhary, 28, was jailed for 11 years in 2016 for leading a telephone fraud scam which conned 750 RBS and Lloyds customers out of £113million.
He built his ill-gotten fortune by controlling a network of corrupt junior high street bank staff who were prepared to steal statements on his behalf. They were paid £250 for each one they handed over.
Three of them, who worked for Lloyds, were subsequently convicted.
Choudhary sweet-talked ordinary men and women on those statements into revealing their internet banking details over the phone.
He posed as a member of their bank’s fraud department who had spotted suspicious activity on their accounts.
Once he had gained a victim’s trust, he would keep them talking while a team of accomplices transferred large sums of money to a network of hundreds of UK accounts his gang controlled.
The silver-tongued crook was dubbed ‘ The Voice’ by police because he put on Scottish, Welsh and posh English accents while talking to his victims.
Nicknamed ‘Fizzy’, the Glasgowbased fraudster raked in more than £ 3million a month and splashed out on cars, including a Bentley and a Lamborghini. He was so obsessive about them that he flew car polishers 8,000 miles
from his admitting and Choudhary fleet conspiracy his Scotland villa of Porsche conspiracy in to Lahore. was to Pakistan launder Cayennes jailed to defraud to money. after clean outside
Crown seize He has the Court profits returned as police of his to crimes. Southwark attempt to
said Edward that, after Franklin, taking prosecuting, into account expenditure during the fraud, Choudhary’s benefit was £19million. ‘We conclude that £14.8million is recoverable,’ said Mr Franklin. ‘If he has it – and it is up to him to prove if he does not.’
Mr Franklin added: ‘The defendant liked to conceal that he owned any property by getting other people to purchase it. It is for the defendant to prove that he does not and, if he cannot prove that he does not, it is for the defendant to pay the consequences.’ The prosecution is relying upon evidence from convicted fraudster Muhammad Azhar, who was also involved, but was found to be a credible witness at the trial.
Mr Franklin said that, according to Azhar, Choudhary received up to £1.5million a month during the fraud. He said: ‘If Azhar is right, the defendant could have received around £17million in the period of the of months and paid in had Azhar Lahore, £500,000 indictment October live-in a fortune had between chefs Pakistan, said to 2015.’ into alone. £1,500,000 and that bank January valets. and An Choudhary accounts his average for 2013 villa 34
with family Mr Franklin a basement lived said: in spa. ‘It it, had He that a said jacuzzi they his employed ‘Muhammad servants Akram and also chefs. claimed to visit the defendant’s address.’
Choudhary, however, says his family in Pakistan now live in a two-bedroom maisonette, costing £191 a month to rent, Mr Franklin said. He said: ‘The defendant cannot be right when he says he has nothing overseas. He can’t be right
when he says all the spending took place in the UK.’ Azhar estimated that Choudhary spent ‘around £3million’ in spending sprees in Harrods alone, using other people to buy Rolexes and other luxury goods on his behalf. Choudhary not only produced a music video for Pakistani pop star Bilal Saeed, he said, but also got the singer to play at his engagement party. He also enjoyed luxury holidays in the Middle East where he was pictured strolling in the desert with a tiger. Choudhary was finally snared after trying to board a flight from Paris to Pakistan with a fake passport in November 2015 before being returned to the UK to face justice. The hearing continues.