Criminals sentenced for intercepting post and defrauding victims out of over £1 million

Two men from London have been sentenced at Inner London Crown Court after intercepting postal correspondence and using confidential information to steal money from bank accounts.

The case was investigated by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist police unit sponsored by the banking industry. The unit acted after the bank alerted them to suspicious activity.

Muhammed Qayyum, 42, and Adbul Khan, 30, worked together to steal £1,082,403 from victims by intercepting post containing banking customers’ confidential information and using the details to impersonate account holders. Qayyum received five and a half years in prison, whilst Khan received a 12-month suspended sentence.

Qayyum would contact the victims’ bank over the phone by impersonating the legitimate account holder, which sometimes involved putting on the voice of an elderly male or female customer. Using the information from the stolen post, he was able to get the victims account details changed to his own, meaning he had control of their accounts.

After these changes were made, the fraudsters would transfer money from the victims’ accounts to accounts controlled by the criminals. Larger transfers involved individuals in collusion with Qayyum attending bank branches in person, using fraudulent identity documents to impersonate victims and authorise transfers from victim bank accounts to the fraudsters. 

The money stolen would then be laundered through cryptocurrency accounts, controlled by Khan.

Police were able to identify Qayyum at various money withdrawal locations across London and the UK, and traced Khan through the flow of fraudulent funds to his accounts, establishing him to be working with Qayyum.

All victims were fully reimbursed by their banks.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Curtis said:

Muhammed Qayyum and Abdul Khan worked together to manipulate bank staff and steal money from innocent customers. Thanks to the collaboration with the banking sector, we were able to track these criminals through digital evidence and bring them to justice and prevent further harm to banking customers. The DCPCU are committed to protecting the public from organised criminal groups who exploit financial systems and their consumers

UK Finance data found that in the first half of 2024, £29.3m was stolen via card ID theft, when a criminal uses a fraudulently obtained card or card details, along with stolen personal information, to open or take over a card account held in someone else’s name.

Area of expertise:

Notes to editor

  • The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU) was established in 2002 as a unique, proactive and fully operational police unit with a national remit, formed as a collaboration between UK Finance, the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police Service.  It is funded by and provides services to the members of UK Finance’s Economic Crime Fraud stream. 
  • UK Finance  Half Year Fraud Report 2024.
  • Always follow the advice of the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign to protect yourself from fraudulent attempts. Find out more about how you can protect yourself from impersonation fraud here