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A balding conman who splashed out on a £10,000 hair transplant after he duped an old couple into selling their home has been ordered to pay back more than £300,000.
Syed Bukhari, 38, masqueraded as a customer services advisor for a bank to persuade the victims to hand over their confidential details, which he used to sell their £200,000 property without their knowledge.
The unnamed couple genuinely believed the conman was ‘Gerry from the bank’.
Both the husband, 83 and a former merchant navyman, and his wife, 84, have dementia and thought Bukhari worked at their local Lloyds branch in Blackpool, Lancashire.
Bukhari had falsely told them there had been ‘fraudulent transactions’ on their bank accounts and had vowed to help them, warning their home could be at risk of repossession.
By the time police unravelled the scam, their home in Fulwood, near Preston which they had lived in for 40 years, had been sold to a private company for £160,000 and they also lost their life savings of £150,000.
Syed Bukhari, 38, conned the couple out of their life savings of £150,000 and sold their £200,000 home. He used the cash to stay at luxury Dubai hotels, buy cars and get a hair transplant (pictured left before the procedure and right after it)
Bukhari used some of the stolen cash to fly business class to Dubai and splurge £11,000 on a stay at a luxury hotel.
He also rented Lamborghini supercars and spent tens of thousands of pounds on the cosmetic implants procedure for his receding hairline plus Rolex watches, jewellery, designer clothes, bags and mobile phones.
He was arrested when officers met an Emirates flight at Manchester Airport from Dubai after inquiries revealed he had set up multiple bank accounts in the couple’s name, redirected their mail and diverted the telephone landline and attempted to take a £40,000 bank loan.
In 2018 Bukhari of Withington, Manchester was jailed for seven years 11 months after he admitted fraud amid fears he was part of a gang targeting OAPs by posing as bank workers claiming their accounts had been compromised.
On Tuesday, he was ordered to pay back £307,759 within three months or face a further three years in jail.
An investigations under Proceeds of Crime powers found that Bukhari had made £561,058 from his crimes after he faked his own death in a bid to claim a £1m insurance payout.
His unnamed victims who have four children and seven grandchildren are still living at their home but are on a waiting list for a care home after their health deteriorated.
The family had to instruct lawyers after receiving a letter saying the couple had a week to leave their home because the new owner was moving in.
On Tuesday, Bukhari was ordered to pay back £307,759 within three months or face a further three years in jail. Pictured is the couple’s son outside their home
They then received letters informing them the old man owed a credit card debt, and had to contact around 15 financial institutions to deal with it.
The Land Registry eventually transferred the ownership of the house back to the couple and the buyer was refunded from public money.
In a statement the couple’s son Graham Worsnopp, 57, said: If someone had made a drama on TV, people still wouldn’t believe it.
‘The sad thing is my dad and stepmum’s health conditions have actually protected them because they don’t know what has happened.
‘My dad’s dementia has got worse and my stepmum has Alzheimer’s. They don’t even know about the Covid situation. The judge’s order is closure in a way – it puts a full stop on things. But the unresolved matter is how did he, a criminal from south Manchester, target my dad in the first place?. We still don’t believe he’ll cough up the money. We think he has it hidden waiting for him in Pakistan somewhere.’
The son added: ‘It’s been awful. Every time I’m sorting through my dad’s financial affairs he asks what I’m doing and I have to tell him he’s been conned – each time the shock and upset is exactly the same as the first time.
‘His condition means he can have a full conversation with you, but as soon as you walk out of a room he doesn’t realise you were there because his short term memory capacity is affected.
An investigations under Proceeds of Crime powers found that Bukhari had made £561,058 from his crimes after he faked his own death in a bid to claim a £1m insurance payout
‘He is a very private, proud man and never shared his financial situation with anybody. My stepmum still believes to this day that Bukhari is a bank worker. ‘I keep thinking its a bad dream and I’m going to wake up. I feel angry towards him.’
Preston Crown Court was told Bukhari began preying on the couple in November 2017 when he contacted the couple under the guise of ‘Gerry Patel’ from their bank.
He told them that he had resolved fraudulent transactions on their accounts and their house was at risk of repossession but he would help them.
He used this to befriend them and gain their trust.
He later went as far as befriending their son over the phone, convincing him he was acting on behalf of the bank.
Shortly after the scam began the couple’s bank manager became suspicious about a £40,000 online loan application made in the husband’s name. The manager contacted the couple who said they had not asked to borrow money and the loan application was cancelled.
But the following day, a mystery man – purporting to be the couple’s son – contacted the bank complaining that that his ‘father’ had been contacted.
A few days later the husband was persuaded to attend the bank with a letter which stated if he was in the bank and appeared confused, their son, had authority on the account and should be contacted.
A contact number was given for Bukhari and in a subsequent call he falsely stated all transactions on the old man’s account were genuine and requested the credit limit be increased to £10,000.
Police visited the couple after concerns about unusual financial activity but the wife declined any help having been convinced Burkhari was offering genuine help. She insisted no money was missing and ‘Gerry from the bank’ was helping them.
Within weeks, 10 different bank accounts and credit cards in the victim’s names had been opened fraudulently via online applications. One of the accounts had almost £100,000 deposited into it, which was later found to be from savings and investments belonging to the couple.
The bank froze the account after becoming suspicious but Bukhari began making multiple calls to the bank falsely claiming to be the son, questioning why the account was blocked stating his ‘father’ would be attending the Blackpool branch to resolve the problem.
Later that day, the elderly husband attended the bank with a note apparently confirming Bukhari’s call but appeared confused as to why he was there with no knowledge of the account. Staff at the bank were so concerned about him, they helped him find his car and contacted the police and left the block on the account in place.
Two PCSOs later visited the couple’s home to find the door answered by Bukhari using the name Gerry Patel and who was on the phone to the bank still trying to get the account unblocked.
The elderly wife said ‘Gerry was a friend of their son’ and that they were fine.
The bank unblocked the account and all of the money was withdrawn or transferred.
The couple’s mail was also redirected allowing Bukhari the opportunity to intercept any bank cards being delivered to the victims.
The redirection was cancelled by Royal Mail when the couple asked their postman why they were not getting any letters.
But the couple’s landline phone was diverted to a line used by Bukhari and their telephone number was changed to gain control of the victims’ existing accounts and intercept communication for the new bank accounts.
The fraud began to unravel in January when the couple’s real son contacted police, concerned that his parents had been victims of fraud after seeing letters about various overdrafts they had not applied for.
Detectives started an investigation and it was revealed that the couple had been driven round various banks in Chorley, Blackburn and Manchester.
New accounts had been opened, requests were made to reactivate frozen accounts or to transfer various sums of money between accounts, all the while believing that ‘Gerry from the bank’ was helping them from losing their home
It was also found that their house – where they had lived for 40 years – had been sold to a private company without their knowledge for less than the market value.
Bukhari was identified as a suspect and officers discovered he had made six trips to Dubai and Pakistan in three months often travelling in first and business class.
He was traced to Dubai and was arrested on February 11 when police found him in a business class seat on an Emirates flight at Manchester Airport.
He was found to be in possession of the couple’s identity documents and documentation relating to them and the fraudulent accounts.
Nomi Lillystone, from the Lancashire Police Economic Crime Unit, said: ‘Bukhari has shown no remorse throughout this investigation and had instead sought to prolong proceedings for as long as he could.
‘We will proactively and robustly target those who seek to exploit the most vulnerable in society and hopefully the conclusion of this case will provide some form of closure for Bukhari’s victims and their family.’
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