A man who pretended to be a police officer in a “highly sophisticated” fraud to steal cash has been jailed.
Nazeeb El-Syed turned up at houses in the Aberdeen area to collect their bank cards after getting access to their PIN numbers.
By pretending to be a police officer, he informed them that they had been victims of crime, and then took their cards – before using them to withdraw cash from ATMs.
One of his victims was an 81-year-old man.
El-Syed, 21, was jailed for eight months yesterday when he appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to four offences.
Depute fiscal Marie Irvine said the first victim, Shyla Kishore, was told in a telephone call by a man claiming to be a police officer that two men had been arrested with bank cards linked to her home address.
Ms Irvine said: “She was then advised by the male that he would try to go with her to her bank in order to cancel the cards.
“She was then greeted by a female voice who advised her that she was a representative of the HSBC banking group.
“Ms Kishore was then asked to input her PIN number into her telephone touch pad in order to cancel the cards which she did.
“The victim was then passed back to the male caller who informed her that an evidence gathering officer would come to her address to take her bank cards for further analysis.”
The court heard that Mr El-Syed then turned up at her house and took away her cards – withdrawing £1,000 on two occasions last July.
An elderly man was targeted in a similar fraud a few weeks later, and also lost about £1,000.
El-Syed previously admitted two charges of committing fraud while acting with others, and two charges of theft.
Yesterday, Sheriff Kevin Drummond said the crimes demonstrated a “high degree” of planning and sophistication so would impose the maximum sentence. He also ordered El-Syed, of 23 Starcross Street, London, to pay his compensation and a further hearing was arranged for next month.
Last night, Inspector Lee Jardine urged people to be vigilant and to never provide banking information to anyone, especially to a cold-caller.
Andrew Laing, procurator fiscal for Grampian, the Highlands and Islands, said: “Al-Syed carefully impersonated a number of police officers both over the phone and in person, in order to induce his victims to provide personal financial information which he could then exploit.
“I am pleased that he has today been brought to justice, and we will continue to work with the Police to identify and prosecute all those perpetrating this type of fraud.”
