A cynical fraudster has been jailed for more than five years for conning a pensioner out of about £300,000.
At Brighton Crown Court, Judge Jeremy Gold asked whether Abdul Ibraheem had ever had an honest job, only to be told that the 36-year-old fraudster had been a footballer.
Ibraheem’s barrister Will Martin said: “He was previously a semi-professional footballer and coach and he has worked for different organisations including Chelsea FC.”
Nicholas Mather, prosecuting, said that there was no record of Ibraheem working for the Premier League club. The judge asked which teams he had played for.
Mr Martin said that his client had been at Gillingham, Yeading and Tooting and Mitcham, under the name Ahmed Ibraheem, before being jailed for two years for a previous fraud.
After he was released, he set up a luxury concierge business called Affluent Lifestyle but the company ran up debts that it couldn’t pay.
The company was wound up in 2018, in a compulsory liquidation, and Ibraheem was banned from being a director for seven years although he started another business.
Ibraheem also rented a £3 million house for £8,000 a month house, in Tolmers Road, Cuffley, in Hertfordshire, after pretending to be a hedge fund manager called Adam, the court was told.
He used a fake passport to get through the letting agent’s checks, claimed to have an annual salary of £500,000 and provided what appeared to be Italian bank statements. The landlord is understood to have lost more than £60,000.
Mr Mather said: “This defendant is a practised, cynical fraudster – someone who exploits vulnerabilities, whether they are due to personal or financial circumstances.
“And he uses those advantages to extract money from people in a practised and professional manner.
“He was able to live a luxury lifestyle as a result of his fraudulent activity.”
He targeted a retired accountant Alan Potter who, Mr Mather said, “became the victim of a ‘boiler room scam’ in 2022.”
The prosecutor said: “That scam cost him something in the region of £1.8 million. He attempted to recover those monies but, as a result, he fell prey to other fraudsters.”
Ibraheem targeted the West Sussex pensioner, a grandfather in his eighties, and “used the money to fund his own lavish lifestyle”.
He went on an £11,000 luxury family holiday to Greece, bought first class flights to Ibiza, limited edition Scotch whisky, expensive watches, furniture including a £5,000 sofa, goods from Harrod’s and an £800 bonsai tree.
Ibraheem told Mr Potter that he could recover the money that he had already lost – for a fee – and conned him out of a further £343,000, Mr Mather said.
He went by another name, Tony Hall, as he swindled Mr Potter out of the money although Mr Martin put the figure at less than £289,000.
Mr Mather said: “He was a convincing fraudster”
Mr Potter withdrew tens of thousands of pounds in cash even though he had been flagged up as a potential fraud victim by his bank. He handed over £200,000 in cash to a “courier”.
Ibraheem also managed to gain control of Mr Potter’s bank account, debit card and credit card and Mr Mather said: “Some of the money was used to obtain property of significant value.”
Ibraheem sent Mr Potter two post-dated cheques for a total of £2.2 million but Mr Mather said: “Those cheques were bogus.”
Mr Potter said in a statement read to the court: “I found him persuasive and believable in everything he said.”
Ibraheem was well-spoken and sounded as though he had a university education but, faced with “the full realisation” that he’d been duped, Mr Potter said: “It has left me feeling not just stupid and embarrassed … but (with) a real lack of confidence in my decision-making.”
He now doubted his own judgment and had lost trust in people and added: “This leaves me in severe financial difficulty.
“I have lost a huge amount of money and I’m on the verge of bankruptcy. I may have to sell my home.
“I have suffered a huge financial loss. This has been a life-changing and devastating experience.”
Officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) put a stop to the fraud with a raid on the Hertfordshire property.
They found a room dedicated to Ibraheem’s designer trainers, a marble kitchen table, expensive artworks and a “wine cellar” with just one bottle.
Mr Martin said in mitigation that Ibraheem was a father of two – and a good parent – and had pleaded guilty early in the case, showing genuine remorse, adding: “He is a man who has some good in him.”
He had four previous convictions for eight offences and had been jailed for fraud twice before but, Mr Martin said, his last conviction was in 2012.
Judge Gold told Ibraheem: “You took advantage of … a vulnerable elderly man who had previously been defrauded of a substantial seven-figure sum.
“Posing as Tony Hall, you gained his trust (and) went on to fleece him of a sum of just less than £300,000.
“You have clearly behaved well while at Lewes Prison on remand. Unfortunately, you have a history of similar offending, albeit some time ago.
“You are an experienced and persuasive fraudster (who) exploited a vulnerable elderly victim (and caused) a loss to the letting agents of £17,000 to £22,000.”
Ibraheem was arrested when the police raided his home in December. He pleaded guilty to
- five counts of fraud
- one count of having an identity document with improper intent
- converting criminal property
- having criminal property
- breaching a ban on being a company director
He denied two other fraud charges and the judge ordered them to lie on the file.
He jailed Ibraheem for 61 months in total – or just over five years – with at least half of that time due to be served in prison.
The senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Rob Havelock, of SEROCU, said: “Ibraheem was living a lifestyle funded through fraud and took advantage of his victim who had lost money through an investment.
“Having obtained the victim’s bank details, Ibrahim purchased large amounts of high-value goods with a combined value of more than £300,000.
“He also used fraudulent payslips, bank statements and a false passport to rent a property.
“As a result of the overwhelming amount of evidence against him he has pleaded guilty and has subsequently been sentenced to a period in prison.”
Ibraheem now faces the confiscation of his assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
SEROCU urged anyone else who may have been conned by Ibraheem to contact police.
deport
He over the years learnt how to be a better fraudster.
Many sadly like him and often don’t get caught I have met a few fraudsters and they come up smelling of roses money talks.
He certainly had excellent taste!
I often think who said crime doesn’t pay.
I have nothing but work in low paid jobs and live in rented property. Second class citizens is not a great place.
I wonder if his background was poverty?
I have also been defrauded by this person and the Police ignored my requests to investigate
I also was defrauded by him too! I also spoke to the police and have all evidence but they didn’t care and closed the case! He hasn’t just done it to a few people but to I believe more people that haven’t spoke up!!!