MP praises cops for catching trickster who conned pilgrims
AN MP today congratulated police chiefs in London’s East End after tracking down a con-man who tricked �600,000 out of Muslim pilgrims. Hundreds of worshippers paid deposits and handed in their passports to the fraudster before he skipped the country
AN MP this-morning has praised police in London’s East End after they caught a con-man who tricked �600,000 out of Muslim pilgrims.
Hundreds of worshippers paid deposits and handed in their passports to fraudster Mohammed Ahmed before he skipped the country.
But he was eventually caught by detectives at Gatwick airport and appeared in court yesterday.
The MP for Bethnal Green & Bow, George Galloway, called his crime “obscene” after he tricked pilgrims saving to go on their once-in-a-lifetime Hajj to Mecca.
You may also want to watch:
OBSCENE
“There is something particularly obscene about a fraud perpetrated on people who have saved up to go to Hajj,” said Galloway.
Most Read
- 1 Tributes paid after Tower Hamlets councillor dies at 40
- 2 Queen's Birthday Honours: Caterer who gave out free meals gets BEM
- 3 Docklands man pleaded guilty to firearms offences
- 4 Crossharbour scheme for 2,000 new homes on Isle of Dogs is halted
- 5 Man 'brandishes gun' in busy Canary Wharf restaurant
- 6 Working classes 'being pushed out by East End's gentrification'
- 7 Phone snatcher admits guilt after robberies in Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlets
- 8 Driver threatened at gunpoint in Bromley-by-Bow carjacking
- 9 Plans mooted to change East End MP constituency boundaries
- 10 Police search park in Poplar after report of stabbing
“I want to congratulate the Met Police and in particular Tower Hamlets borough commander Paul Rickett and to Det Ins Des McHugh and the other officers involved.
“It was hard and intelligent work they put in to bring the perpetrator of this fraud to justice.”
Ahmed pleaded guilty to a string of fraud and money laundering offences at his travel agency in Spitalfields when he appeared at Snaresbrook crown court yesterday (June 4) and will be sentenced later.
