Two teenagers arrested in London’s East End have been charged in connection with a £1m courier fraud investigation by five police forces in the South West.
Rahim Choudhrey and Abdul Shafee, both 18, living at Wheeler House in Quaker Street, Spitalfields, are charged with a total of 10 counts of conspiracy to defraud victims out of a total of £168,600.
They were due to appear at Bristol Magistrates’ Court today.
Choudhrey faces 10 charges, with sums ranging between £1,000 and £42,600, while Shafee faces five charges of sums between £10,000 and £20,000.
A third teenager who lives in Thrawl Street, half-a-mile away, who was also arrested yesterday, has been released on police bail.
Detectives from Zephyr, the South West’s regional organised crime unit, has been carrying out investigations into 300 pensioners and other vulnerable people being tricked on the phone into giving away bank-card PIN numbers as part of bogus police investigations, with couriers turning up on the doorstep to collect the cards as “evidence”.
It involves five police forces, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Avon & Somerset and Devon & Cornwall, as well as the Met.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here