A conman who posed as a police officer is thought to have raked in £180,000 - by claiming he could sell jailed criminals’ homes at bargain prices.
Mohammed Raja duped victims into believing he was a West Midlands Police economic crime investigator. He said it was his job to dispose of properties seized from crooks under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
And police said more than 50 people could have been conned by his elaborate scam. He used force headed notepaper and built a wardrobe of police clothes - including a stab vest, utility belt, lanyard, police fleece and flat cap - to pull off the ruse.
But the paper came from his spell as a security guard at the force’s Lloyd House HQ in Birmingham between 2003 and 2005. He also created bogus documents to support his scam, plus doctored emails from senior officers addressed to “Sergeant Raja”.
It’s understood he collectively conned victims out of more than £180,000 – but his scam was exposed in 2016 when a man contacted West Midlands Police to report what he believed was a corrupt officer.
