Darlington pensioners were fleeced out of life savings by 'fake cops'

Arris Qumar, Awais Zaman and Mya Haskins were members of the gang who posed as Scotland Yard detectives to persuade their victims to hand over large sums of cash and buy designer watches.

A fourth co-accused, Sheronica Davis Mitchell, was cleared by a jury at Teesside Crown Court of any involvement in the scam.

Jurors heard how the Darlington victims also bought Rolex watches for the gang members with one of them losing more £120,000 to fraudsters in September 2020.

Read more: Benefit fraudster overpaid £17k before it was discovered she made false claim

The victims were telephoned over a number of days by men claiming to be Fraud Squad officers from the Yard who told them that their bank accounts had been compromised, and to replace the receiver and to call 999.

But the scammers had kept the line open, and the victims were then in the hands of fake officers who told them to empty their bank accounts and hand the money over to police couriers for it to be deposited in new safe bank accounts.

The fraud only came to an end when a building society manager became suspicious and police were able to arrest one of the couriers at the home of one of the Darlington victims.

Over the next few days in September 2020, more people were arrested in Coventry and London as officers gathered evidence of the location of mobile phones and vehicles connected to the suspects.

Judge Chris Smith remanded 26-year-old Qumar, of York Close, Coventry, and Zaman, 21, in custody until their sentencing hearing, while 19-year-old Haskins was released on conditional bail.

Addressing Zaman, of Brooklyn Road, Coventry, the judge said: “I would be doing you no favours giving you bail at this stage and I have fears that if I you would not attend your sentence hearing.”

While he told mother-of-one Haskins, of Izod Road, Rugby: “You have got yourself wrapped up in something very serious and the jury were satisfied that you knew what was going on.

“You have caring responsibility and were younger at the time, so I am prepared to enlarge your bail until the sentence hearing. You have to understand that a custodial sentence is highly likely and I am giving you that time to get plans in place for your child.”

All three will appear at the same court on December 9 for sentence.

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