Men sentenced after Solihull pensioners duped in courier fraud con

Two men who were caught trying to buy designer jeans at a shopping centre with a bank card stolen from a Solihull pensioner earlier the same day have been sentenced at court.

Zain Hussain and Mohammed Hussain were arrested at True Religion in the Bullring, Birmingham, on 4th March after police were called by staff when they attempted to purchase new clothes using a suspicious card.

Inquiries soon revealed it had been taken from an 89-year-old man just hours earlier after he fell victim to a so-called ‘courier fraud’ at his home in Solihull.

He’d been cold-called by someone claiming to be a police officer, who used a story to convince him to hand his card over to a courier who visited his property to collect it.

But the two Hussains denied having any involvement in the original theft, claiming instead that they’d been given the card by someone else who they refused to name.

An investigation was launched and inquiries into the pair revealed it wasn’t the first time they’d used stolen property to pay for designer goods.

The 19-year-olds were subsequently linked to the purchase of almost a thousand pounds’ worth of jeans from the same city centre shop on 12th February.

They made the transaction using a bank card stolen from an 82-year-old woman – again from Solihull and again on the same day – which they’d also used to withdraw £300 from a cash machine.

The duo also had a penchant for designer footwear, with CCTV at a sports shop capturing them on camera on 25th February as they bought two pairs of Nike trainers, worth £230.

These were paid for with yet another card that had been stolen from an 85-year-old woman in Solihull, just hours before their shopping trip.

There was never enough evidence linking them to the original thefts, but both were charged with fraud offences for having possession of and using the victims’ cards.

They were jointly charged with three counts of handling stolen goods and three counts of fraud by false representation, which both admitted at earlier hearings at Birmingham Crown Court.

Zain Hussain, of Woodall Road, Aston, was today (30th October) handed a 15-month sentence, while Mohammed Hussain, of Holte Road, Aston, received a 12-month community order.

Detective Constable Tara Bruton, from West Midlands Police’s Economic Crime Unit (ECU), said: “Courier fraud is big business for organised criminals who don’t think twice about exploiting the most vulnerable members of society and I hope today’s sentencing sends out a strong message to those who orchestrate the scam.

“I’ve no doubt there are many more offenders involved in this type of activity up and down the country but here in the West Midlands there’s been a lot of work going into raising awareness since offences of this nature peaked earlier in the year.

“Thankfully, crime prevention advice has been widely circulated and a series of raids across the West Midlands by the ECU in March has seriously disrupted these networks and led to a reduction in the number of offences being committed.

“Our work to identify the people responsible is on-going and in the meantime I would remind people to remain vigilant to the scam. The police and banks will never ask for your PIN over the phone, so you should always put down the receiver straight away.

“If you’ve got elderly relatives, friends or neighbours please remind them never to disclose bank details or hand over cards to anyone. Our advice is always to be wary of unsolicited callers, whether on the phone or in person, and if in doubt, hang-up or close the door…and call police. Don’t get conned!”

Read more: http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/latest-news/news.aspx?id=1965