A gang of “heartless” Holloway and Finsbury Park conmen have been jailed for a combined 19 years after fleecing pensioners of their life savings in a £1million fraud.
They posed as police officers to dupe elderly victims, including a Second World War veteran who lost £113,000, into handing over their money after gaining their trust.
They spent it on foreign holidays, designer clothes and someone travelling to Syria - though police said they have no proof money ended up in terrorist hands.
Most of the 140 victims were in their 80s, with the oldest aged 94, the Old Bailey heard. Some died without seeing justice done. Others have been left nearly penniless by the scam as they have not had all their money refunded by the banks.
The men sentenced include:
• Makzhumi Abukar, 24, of Holloway: jailed for seven years and four months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. He was identified by police as the ringleader of the scam.
• Achmed Abdulaziz Ahmed, 23, of Morgan Road, Holloway: jailed for four years and two months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud.
• Mohamed Dahir, 23, of Finsbury Park: jailed for one year and nine months after denying conspiracy to commit fraud. In Mayt last year, he recieved a letter from Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn in support of his bail application.
• Yasser Abukar, 24, of Holloway: jailed for six years after denying conspiracy to commit fraud.
Four other men: Sakaria Aden, 22, of Stoke Newington; Anrul Islam, 24, of Dagenham; Fahim Islam, 21, of Stepney; and former X-Factor contestant Nathan Abraham Lauren Fagan-Gayle, 29, of Mitcham; were also jailed for their part in the scam.
Sentencing, judge Anujar Dhir told the court yesterday: “It was a heartless plan with a devastating and lasting impact on the victims. You fleeced your victims of large sums of money. For some of them it was their life savings.
“But their loss was more than that. They lost confidence in their own ability to look after themselves and their own affairs and this contributed to the distress and misery which your victims have endured for the last two years.
“Having heard some of the victims give evidence in the trial, it is clear to me that they were left completely shattered by your actions and the effect of it will last until the end of their lives. I was struck by their dignity and their courage when giving evidence about a matter that was so obviously painful for them to relive.
“None of you has shown any remorse. None of you has done anything to return any of the money you stole. None of you has had the decency to explain what happened to the money.”
The Metropolitan Police, which launched the investigation in December 2014, believe even more people were conned but have not come forward.
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