Pakistani UK fraudsters – Abdul Ghaffar Mohammed & Wife Shahista

UK pakistani fraudsters from Manchester – A husband and wife have been jailed for conning a string of friends out of nearly half a million pounds.

Shahista and Abdul Mohammed gave the appearance of being devout Muslims to gain the trust of people in the Asian community. Shahista even pretended to be dying of cancer to con friends out of their life savings.

The couple promised their victims they would earn them up to 50 per cent profit in just three months by investing in oil businesses in the Middle East.

But they just kept the cash and used it to fund a lavish lifestyle.

They lived in a plush house on Wolverton Drive in Wilmslow with three cars. They enjoyed luxury holidays to Dubai and America and their three children went to a private nursery.

But their scam started to unravel when one of their victims contacted the police. Detectives tracked down a string of others who had fallen for their ruse and the couple were jailed at Chester Crown Court.

Shahista 31, sobbed as she was given an 18 month sentence after admitting one count of theft. Her 42-year-old husband Abdul, also known as Ghaffar Mohammed, was jailed for four years after he admitted five counts of theft.

Prosecuting, Wyn Lloyd-Jones said: These two defendants were involved in a large-scale theft.

The couple stole £464,000 between May 2005 and March 2007 from five people.

One victim, a mother of four, had invested nearly £180,000. She raised £50,000 from the sale of a house in Britain and another £50,000 by selling a house in Pakistan. She also raised £20,000 on a credit card, took out a £20,000 loan and borrowed £10,000 from one son and £6,000 from another using his student loan.

She never saw any of the money again. The woman became extremely ill, lost three-and-a-half stone and left financially ruined.

Another victim, Mohammed Shereen, 53 from Birmingham, invested nearly £146,00. He also never got his money back and has been left suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes.

A third victim went round to the Mohammeds home to find out where their money had gone only for Mohammed to send two men who said they were members of the Taliban and made threats unless the demands were dropped. Mr Lloyd-Jones said a widow who had invested £123,000 had loaned Shahista £50,000 as part of the deal, intending it as a loan, because she had been told she needed treatment in America for cancer.

Judge Roger Dutton told the couple: This was dishonesty on a very large scale.

After the hearing, one of their victims said: They just used Islam to gain peoples confidence. What they did was outrageous. We will never see this money again.

Det Con Charlotte Astbury said: This is a fantastic result but I have no doubt there are more victims out there. This is the tip of the iceberg really.