Millions of pounds could be in hands of ISIS in Syria after thousands of victims were targeted by Bank of Terror fraud gang 

  • Gang posed as police officers and targeted people sometimes over 90
  • Nine men jailed for their part in the conspiracy at the Old Bailey, London
  • Victims with average age of 83 were conned into transferring life savings
  • Money was sent to Syria, as well frittered on designer clothes and holidays 
  • Lawyers for one of the gang handed letter from Jeremy Corbyn to judge
  • Another member was a failed X Factor singer who used cash for new album

In the dock: Mohamed Dahir was part of a 'Bank of Terror' gang that defrauded pensioners out of £1million - and persuaded Jeremy Corbyn to ask a judge to grant him bail

In the dock: Mohamed Dahir was part of a 'Bank of Terror' gang that defrauded pensioners out of £1million - and persuaded Jeremy Corbyn to ask a judge to grant him bail

Millions of pounds may have been funnelled to ISIS after money defrauded from potentially thousands of victims could not be traced by authorities.

Eleven men were part of the 'bank of terror' fraud in which conmen phoned elderly victims and tricked them into handing over their life savings by pretending to be police officers.

At the Old Bailey nine men were jailed for their part in the conspiracy and two of the gang have already been sent to prison.

Some of the pensioners were in their nineties when they had their savings stolen, and the average age of those targeted was 83.

They posed as police officers to dupe elderly victims into handing over their money, which was then laundered and frittered away on foreign holidays and designer clothes. 

The investigation by officers from the National Terrorism Financial Investigation Unit uncovered 16 phone lines used to make 6,000 calls to around 4,000 different phone numbers.

One victim, a 94-year-old man from north-west London, lost £130,000, while another victim lost £135,000. 

Jeremy Corbyn wrote a letter on behalf of Mohamed Dahir, asking for him to be granted bail when he was first charged - Dahir tried to use it so he could get home for Christmas - but it was rejected by the judge.

The X Factor reject Nathan Fagan-Gayle, 29 laundered £20,000 in a scam so he could record a new album and buy some new outfits. 

Gang members phoned their victims pretending to be investigating a fraud at their bank and told them they needed to transfer their money for 'safekeeping'.

They persuaded one elderly victim who had cancer to miss a doctor's appointment to withdraw cash for them.

The men, described by police as 'cruel, callous and calculating' committed fraud on an 'industrial' level, the Old Bailey heard.

Describing the impact on the victims, Judge Anujar Dhir told the court: 'Some were in their 90s and some passed away before the trial took place.'

She said the impact on those targeted was 'catastrophic - some lost their life savings'. 

Mohammed Youssfi, 38, of West Brompton, was given 20 months in prison for money laundering and fraud after he pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Mohammed Abokar, 28, of Islington, was sentenced to 18 months for money laundering.

The gang, who were convicted of either conspiracy to commit fraud or money laundering offences, also included Fahim Islam, 21, of Stepney, Achmed Ahmed, 23, of Holloway, Anrul Islam, 24, of Dagenham, Sakaria Aden, 22, of Stoke Newington, Yasser Abukar, 24, of Holloway, and Warsame Sheik, 30, of White City.

Eight of the defendants were remanded in custody and the sentencing will continue at 10am on Wednesday May 4.

Warsame Sheik was bailed and he will be sentenced separately on May 27.

Outlining the case at the beginning of sentencing, prosecutor Kevin Dent said £576,000 was stolen from 18 identified victims, and another £69,000 was arranged to be obtained.

Fagan-Gayle appeared on The X Factor

The X Factor reject Nathan Fagan-Gayle, 29 (pictured left outside court and right on the show) laundered £20,000 in a scam so he could record a new album and buy designer clothes

Haul: A photo of cash found on the mobile phone of another member of the gang. The money was never recovered

Haul: A photo of cash found on the mobile phone of another member of the gang. The money was never recovered

Fahim Islam was part of the nine-strong fraud gang

Criminal enterprise: Makhzumi Abuka, left, and Fahim Islam, right, were part of a nine-strong gang of fraudsters

Anrul Islam: Group posed as police officers to con elderly out of their savings

Scam: Yasser Abukar, left, Anrul Islam, right, were in a group posing as police officers to persuade victims to transfer cash into accounts controlled by their associates

But he said it is believed there are many other unidentified victims who were conned out of a further £328,000 at least.

He told the court: 'It is clear from those figures that this was a large-scale, sophisticated conspiracy that operated on victims in a nationwide scale.

'There was a method of operating, of conning the invariably elderly and vulnerable victims who were telephoned to their home addresses.

'The callers, who were part of the fraud, would pretend to be either from banks or to be law enforcement officers - police officers.' 

Shakeria Aden, 22, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud between May 2014 and May 2015

Facing jail: Shakeria Aden, 22, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud between May 2014 and May 2015

He said the con artists would claim there had been suspicious activity on the victims' bank accounts and trick them into transferring money into other accounts.

The method then changed and from December 2014 victims were conned into taking out 'large sums of money' from their banks accounts and handing the cash over to the gang.

He said: 'Those sums of cash would be brought back to their home addresses and couriers who were part of the conspiracy would travel down to parts of the country to collect the cash from the victims.'

The victims, some of whom have since died, were conned into making multiple trips to banks to hand over up to £130,000 in cash and cheques.

Believing they were helping the police, victims were persuaded to lie to those around them about the money, the Old Bailey heard.

A number of the elderly victims attended court and sat in the public gallery to hear the fate of the men who had stolen their money.

The court heard that many of the victims have not been able to get any of their money back, while others have only recovered a small sum.

Because the fraudsters coached them in precisely what to say to banks to withdraw money without attracting suspicion, many have struggled to get their banks to refund them, the court heard. 

Mr Dent said: 'The victims had to deceive their own banks and to deceive their own families about what happened.'

He added: 'We say this was a fraud that directly targets the elderly and vulnerable and plays on their insecurities, sometimes their isolation, their sense of decency.

'And that, probably in no small measure, because of their age and vulnerability, the fraudsters had control of the victims and were adept at keeping control of the victims - keeping them isolated, making sure that their own partners, husbands and wives, were not informed about what was going on, their children were not informed about what was going on.'

The victims, the oldest of whom was 94, were from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Bedfordshire, London and Kent.

Some died without ever seeing justice, the court heard.

One elderly man lost £113,000, while a woman was tricked out of £130,000, the court heard.

Former X Factor contestant Nathan Fagan-Gayle, 29, was convicted of laundering £20,000 from 73-year-old Elizabeth Curtis, who was duped into handing it over by a fake police officer in May 2014.

Breaking down in tears during a taped interview, Miss Curtis said: 'I was absolutely stunned and shocked and could not believe I had been so stupid and naive as to be taken in.'

In all, Miss Curtis was persuaded to transfer around £130,000 to different accounts.

The court heard that singer-songwriter Fagan-Gayle, from Tower Hamlets, east London, went on a shopping spree and used some of the cash to hire a car in the United States.

In a separate trial last year, Mohamed Dahir, 23, Shakaria Aden, 22, and Yasser Abukar, 24, all from north London, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud between May 2014 and May 2015.

Following the convictions, it emerged that Jeremy Corbyn, in his role as Islington North MP, had sent a letter in support of Dahir's original successful bail application last May.

In court Adam Westenholme, representing Dahir, said he had been working as a driver and had not known the full extent of the fraud.

He added that Dahir is involved in his local Somalian community, and has got a BTech in electronic engineering.

'It's a mark on his family, a mark that will be with him for the rest of his life.

'He's the eldest of seven children, it gives him great shame and he will face the full responsibility of his actions.

'He simply states that he is ashamed of his actions and so ashamed of the unfortunate effect it's had on these victims.'

Other defendants pleaded guilty to their part in the fraud - either as conspirators or money launderers.

Video footage shows another member of the gang, Achmed Abdulaziz Ahmed, going to the address of a victim in Dorset and then leaving with a package of money - the victim believed him to be a police officer

Video footage shows another member of the gang, Achmed Abdulaziz Ahmed, going to the address of a victim in Dorset and then leaving with a package of money - the victim believed him to be a police officer

They are: Fahim Islam, 21, of east London; Ahmed Ahmed, 23, of north London; Makhzhumi Abukar, 23, from north London; Anrul Islam, 24, from Dagenham; and Warsame Sheik, 30, from Harrow.

The juries were not told that the con was uncovered by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) after a separate terror probe found suspicious payments into a bank account of someone who is now in Syria.

Speaking after the earlier convictions in December last year, Commander Richard Walton, head of SO15, said: 'This was a scam on a huge national scale detected by specialist financial investigators who have stopped the targeting of even more victims.

'We uncovered this fraud after a separate terrorist investigation found suspicious payments into a bank account of an individual who is now believed to have travelled to Syria.'

Detectives investigating terrorist activity believe these kind of scams are part of a network of criminals siphoning cash to fund terrorism and travel to war-torn Syria to fight with ISIS.

Commander Haydon said: 'Without a doubt courier fraud is being used to fund terrorism.

'Groups not just in the UK but overseas are using courier fraud, robbery, credit card fraud, drug dealing, oil, business fraud, bank of trust - it all contributes to the funding of terrorism, it's all part of it.

'But we can't be sure that in this case it has being used for terrorist activities, we couldn't prove that link.

'If we could then the charges would be the more serious charges of terrorism, rather than fraud.

'I have to be realistic, I can only put before the court what we can prove.. Undoubtedly we will unearth similar frauds in the future, it's a crime that's not going to go away.'

Since this case was uncovered authorities have closed the loophole that allowed criminals to exploit the phone system.

Commander Haydon said: 'As a result of the is case OFCOM have changed the way the phone system works so it is much harder for the phone system to be exploited in this way.'

 

How the 'Bank of Terror' gang hand-picked war veterans, widows and even cancer patients before stealing their life savings.

The Old Bailey heard the devastating impact the fraud has had on the elderly victims, who had an average age of 83.

Victims were bombarded with phone calls from the fraudsters posing and police officers, and were told not to speak to anyone about what they were doing in case they compromised the police operation.

The were told that the police suspected employees at the bank, and told them not to tell the cashier the reason for withdrawing the money.

Some were making so many trips to the bank, they were unable to attend important medical appointments or take care of their homes.

Many pensioners lost their life savings in the 'cruel, callous and calculating' scam. The eldest victim was 94 and some who were targeted died before ever seeing justice done and the perpetrators convicted and sentenced

Fraid: One of the gang walks to a waiting taxi after picking up cash stolen from a vulnerable victim - who were in court today to see them jailed

As a consequence of the fraud, many of the victims have suffered anxiety and depression and other health problems. 

Thomas Garrett, 86, from Sandwich in Kent, had £3,000 stolen from him.

He said: 'My wife of 62 years died in September 2014, which hit me really hard.

'I was suffering from severe arthritis and the £3,000 was about a third of my savings, so my children and grandchildren are going to inherit less.

'It has made me less lose my confidence in my own judgment and myself to the point I can't trust myself to deal with my own financial affairs and I have entrusted them to my daughter.

'The loss of my wife and this fraud has led to a breakdown which I thought was the onset of dementia, but I have been diagnosed with depression.

'It makes me angry to think how foolish I was.'

Julia Hill had £11,000 stolen from her and her husband.

She said: 'We have felt like such idiots knowing that we have been conned. It is such a horrible feeling.

'I used to feel physically sick whenever I thought about it. It is not a nice world any more, a lot of people are just out to take and steal from others. I still feel a lot of anger towards these people.'

Kenneth Whitaker, 93 at the time of the fraud, had £113,000 stolen from him. He had fought in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War and had fought at the famous Battle of Arnhem.

Mr Whitaker, who has trouble with his eyes, said he had always been an independent person, but the fraud damaged that.

He said: 'I served in the Army Air Corps from 1939 and fought in the Second World War and was at Arnhem, after that I became involved in business.

'It is very difficult for me to say or put into words how this has affected me, there are a lot of things that I can't put my finger on. The best way I can put it is that it has made me feel a lot older.

'I never used to feel my age or how old I am, but I do now.

'Now I feel I have lost some of my independence, since this happened I've had to take a step back.'

The fraud led to a string of pensioners duped across seven counties. Pictured above is some of the money police recovered from one of the properties while investigating

He played a part in the £1million scam, which saw a string of pensioners duped across seven counties. Pictured above is some of the money police recovered from one of the properties while investigating 

He added: 'I don't feel as confident, but most of all I feel like such an idiot for not picking it up earlier. The worst thing is I thought I was helping.

'Throughout my time in the Army and business I've tried to do the right thing, I thought I was trying to help police officers catch criminals.

'Throughout my time in the world I was never afraid of anything, perhaps that's what made me a target. Now I just feel dumb and stupid for having fallen for it.'

Patricia Burnham, 87 at the time of the fraud, had £135,000 stolen from her.

Her husband was ill at the time and they had 'numerous' doctor's appointments to keep when they were conned into handing over their savings by a fraudster posing as Pc Jenkins. They believed that by handing over their money they were protecting it from criminals.

She said: 'I didn't want to burden my husband with all the requests from Pc Jenkins or worry him that our savings were at risk.'

She said the con artists had targeted them at a vulnerable time as she was worried about having enough money to pay for a nursing home, should her husband need one.

She said: 'I'm a law abiding, trusting individual who genuinely thought I was assisting police to uncover wrongdoing in banks. This scam has made me question everything.

'The money stolen was my, and my husband's, life savings, which meant we had financial certainty whatever happened.

'My husband passed away just two week after I handed the last package (of money) over to the courier. It is terrible that our last moments together were overshadowed by this horrible situation, and that the time that I kept running off to make withdrawals could have been spent together.

'They had absolutely no regard for my personal situation and preyed upon us at a point of particular vulnerability. I was a very independent individual, but this crime has changed me.'

 

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.