Crook jailed for defrauding pensioner of £400,000 after telling her her account was being hacked

Muhammed Faisal Yakoob was jailed for three-and-a-half years after a court heard he partook in a scam where the victim was told her account was under attack from fraudsters.

The victim, a woman in her seventies at the time who is from North Yorkshire, received numerous phone calls in 2016 from men who claimed to be from her bank, knowing all her personal details.

Yakoob, of Cliffe Vale, Stoke-on-Trent, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court on March 22 after pleading guilty to being a part of the plausible conspiracy. The 36-year-old admitted charges of money laundering and identity fraud.

The court heard the victim was targeted by phone calls in May and June in 2016 from individuals who told her that her account, and savings account, were at risk of an imminent attack of fraud from rogue staff members at the bank. The callers told her the fraudulent activity was being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority and police.

The victim was then told that new "safe" accounts had been opened in her name to protect her from the non-existent fraudsters, to which she needed to transfer her money. The crooks even persuaded her to download an app on her computer where Yakoob and others involved in the conspiracy could remotely control her money, telling her it was to "check for viruses".

In reality, the app allowed the criminals to apply for a £25,000 bank loan in the victim's name.

By the time the fraud came to light, the fraudsters had obtained funds in excess of £400,000 which represented her entire savings.

-> Judge shows mercy to Yorkshire mum who gambled away £140,000 fundraised for tragic boy's cancerThe court heard how the conspirators set up numerous "mule" accounts as part of the fraud, one of which was set up by computing post-graduate student Yakoob under a different name.

Yakoob used the money siphoned into the mule account to rent a bedsit in Crewe and buy a company called GlamCo Ltd so he could then apply for a fictitious company bank account.

Some £125,000 of the money stolen from the victim was transferred into Yakoob's bogus account, which was then dispersed into several further "mule" accounts.

Yakoob was eventually identified by police examining CCTV from a bank where he presented his false identity documents bearing his alias name on the bogus GlamCo account - an alias which he had previously used before.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Ian Sharp of North Yorkshire Police’s Major Fraud Investigation Team, said: “The victim in this case was an astute, educated, professional who was convinced by the conniving, plausible tactics used by the fraudsters to steal her money.

“She has been devastated by this event. The overwhelming impact seems to her similar to the experience of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I hope she takes some comfort knowing that Yakoob is now behind bars and that the fault lies solely with these disgraceful criminals who took advantage of her trustworthy nature.