Five men jailed over £4.5m worldwide phone line fraud

The gang admitted conspiracy to defraud in a scam where fraudulently obtained mobile phone sim cards were used to make multiple calls to premium rate phone lines outside the UK.

Mohammad Butt, 42, of Forest Gate, east London, Abrar Arshad, 35, of Rochford, Essex, and Abiola Salami, 30, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, were each sentenced to three years for conspiracy to defraud mobile phone company 02.

Two other men who admitted conspiracy to defraud the company were also sentenced.

Nikhil Jamsandekar, 33, of Forest Gate, east London, was jailed for 27 months, and Ade James, 25, of Queensbury, Birmingham, was sentenced to 18 months.

The court heard that 02 lost nearly £4.5m as a result of the scam, known as international revenue share fraud.

Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC, sentencing the men at Southwark Crown Court in London, said: “This is not a victimless crime, as inevitably such huge losses are passed on in part to honest bill-paying customers.

“This fraud was carried out by an international gang of conspirators. Simply stated, innocent, honest individuals’ personal identities and details were dishonestly acquired along with countless mobile phone handsets and sim cards which were dishonestly obtained.”

Judge Pegden said the men had played a “significant part” in enabling the fraud to continue and their actions contributed to the “riches” that were obtained.

“There must have been a significant number of other conspirators, especially abroad,” he said.

“I accept that none of you were at the pinnacle of the conspiracy or creator of it, but you all played significant parts... enabling the conspiracy to continue and to be very, very successful.

“You all, by your actions, contributed to the riches that were obtained.”

The court heard that mobile phones were ordered by using stolen identities and then delivered to the conspirators by corrupt delivery drivers. Sim cards from the phones were tested on handsets and then sent overseas, where premium rate lines were acquired by other conspirators.

Repeated phone calls were made abroad to the lines, generating “enormous” bills for 02.

The court was told the case involved 960 sim cards, with innocent people whose identities had been stolen receiving huge bills as a result of the scam.

Butt, a Pakistani national who ran a legitimate mobile phone business, was described by Judge Pegden as an “important middle man” in the conspiracy.

The court heard that when his premises were raided, three handsets were found which had been used to test 41 sim cards. These sim cards caused a loss to O2 of more than £55,000, the court was told. Arshad was also described as having played a “middle man” role similar to that of Butt.

Salami was described as having a “significant number” of aliases who had been a “significant, important cog” at the front end of the conspiracy.