Five jailed for money laundering IT scam proceeds

FIVE people who laundered £1.2 million proceeds of bogus computer service companies have been jailed by the Leeds Crown Court, according to media reports.

The companies conned the elderly and vulnerable into paying thousands of pounds each to fix non-existent problems in their computers.

Amanda Grigg, 66, of Truro, Gena Harrington, 39, of Birmingham, Bindu Devasia, 49, of Kent, Nicholas Alcide, 40, of Birmingham, and Jose Kuriakose, 50, of Kent, were sentenced on Monday (June 6).

The sentences follow an investigation led by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, supported by officers from West Midlands, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire police services.

Between May 2015 and November 2019 the gang transferred £1,289,837 to two brothers based in India, posing as representatives of HP, Microsoft Norton and Epson to defraud their victims.

The money was filtered through a series of companies set up by the five-member gang before being transferred to India.

Their modus operandi involved posting online advertisements to lure victims. They would then make them believe that their computers were facing issues and assure to fix them for a fee.

They were also persuaded to allow remote access to their computers.

One person totally paid £4,427.96 to people who posed as HP employees to resolve a supposed issue with his computer.

He was initially told his computer had been hacked and demanded an immediate payment of £803.98 to fix it.

After he paid up, he received numerous calls and was persuaded to make additional payments for non-existent issues.

When the cycle of calls persisted he grew suspicious and approached Trading Standards.

Grigg was jailed for three years, Kuriakose for four years and two months, and Harrington for two years and six months.

Devasia was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for two years. Alcide was given a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Both were ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.

Alcide was disqualified from being a company director for a period of two years, while the rest or six years.

Lord Michael Bichard, chair of National Trading Standards, said this group of money launderers had deviously set up a vast web of companies to hide their criminality.