A man has been jailed for his part in a scam which cost a vulnerable Leicester man his life savings. Arshad Hussain was caught after £54,000 was transferred into his account as part of a larger scam which saw the victim conned out of £131,000.
The vulnerable man, who lives in Knighton, even took out a £25,000 bank loan to pay the fraudsters after exhausting his savings. Hussain, 35, appeared at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday and admitted two money laundering charges.
The court heard the victim was targeted in June 2016 by bogus workmen claiming firstly to be from a company called Pro Guard, and later from a business known as Everest. They persuaded him to have his guttering cleaned and have his fascias and guttering completely replaced.
Very little work was ever done, and it was of very poor quality, but the conmen continued to visit the victim, demanding cash payments and even taking the victim’s phone away and deleting messages from it.
An expert engaged by Leicester Trading Standards to examine the shoddy work suspected the workmen had deliberately damaged the house in order to charge for carrying out extortionate repairs.
Police were alerted in June 2016 when £54,200 was paid in three separate transactions to a bank account belonging to Hussain, by a fraudster who visited the victim claiming to be from Everest. Although the money was subsequently dispersed to other accounts held by Hussain and others, investigators said there was no indication that Hussain was involved in the principal fraud.
