Yahoo News Prolific fraudsters who handled over 5,000 stolen phones jailed
Four prolific phone fraudsters who handled over 5,000 stolen phones have been sent to prison. Across an 18 month period, the gang used stolen phones from across London to take out loans with their crimes costing a total of £5.1 million.
The group were tracked down by officers from Lambeth and Southwark after a number of robbery and theft victims reported they had tracked their stolen devices to two main London addresses. The suspect were tracked and were raided early on February 26.
During their search, officers found 170 suspected stolen phones. But cops have not been able to track down the owners of all the phones seized as not all were reported as stolen.
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Zakaria Senadjki, 31, of Dartmouth Close, Notting Hill was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods, conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and possessing/controlling ID with improper intention. He was hit with eight years behind bars.
Ahmed Abdelhakim Belhanafi, 25, of Dartmouth Close, Notting Hill was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods and conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, and was given four years and eight months.
Nazih Cheraitia, 34, of Wales Farm Road, Acton was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods and possess/control ID document with improper intention. He was sentenced to three years and five months in prison.
Riyadh Mamouni, 25. of Dartmouth Close, Notting Hill was convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
The Met is urging anyone who has had a lost or stolen phone to use the national mobile phone register so recovered phones can be restored.
Last year, more than 64,000 mobile phones were reported to the police as stolen in London, through theft or robbery – double the previous two years.
Commander Owain Richards, from the Metropolitan Police, said: “I want to commend the borough based local officers involved for their excellent work in tracking down these individuals and ensuring they were brought to justice.
“We do not underestimate the impact these crimes have on Londoners and are doing all we can to tackle phone thefts. This includes increased policing in hotspot areas and making better use of technology.
“However we need the phone companies to play their part and make it more difficult for criminals to re-sell these stolen devices. The Met will be speaking with them in the coming weeks to push this issue even further.”
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