A dating app swindler who conned women into giving him thousands of pounds was arrested at Gatwick Airport as he disembarked a flight from Pakistan.
Khalid Mahmood, 44, used the same tactic to scam three victims – single women he’d met on a dating website - into paying him thousands, offering them exclusive membership to a ‘gold trading club’.
He met his third victim in Oxford in July 2021. Despite telling the him she was not interested in signing up to the trading club, Mahmood called within hours of their meeting to tell her he had signed her up.
The conman said he would pay half the membership fee, leaving her to find the remaining £4,000.
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She borrowed the money from her mother and later met Mahmood at Victoria station in London. He made her withdraw another £300 then said he would complete the online sign-up form on her mobile phone while she looked for a photo booth as he claimed she needed a passport-style photo.
The woman returned to find that Mahmood had disappeared with her phone and the cash.
British Transport Police, which prosecuted him, said the conman had already perpetrated the swindle on two other victims by the time he met his third victim in Oxford.
He got away with more than £13,000 from his first two victims, whom he had met online in 2020.
The West Midlands man was arrested at Gatwick Airport last April, as he got off a flight from Pakistan.
DC Jennifer Brown, the investigating officer, said: "Mahmood conned these women by building up their trust online and in phone calls before setting up the meeting and offering a too-good-to-be-true deal.
"Mahmood snared the women, none of whom could afford to lose the cash he stole from them, by promising potential riches from his connections to the gold trading market."
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The crook, of Vicarage Crescent, Redditch, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and theft.
On Wednesday (September 20), a judge at Inner London Crown Court imposed a nine month suspended prison sentence.
He was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work, pay £20,000 compensation and complete up to 35 rehabilitation activity requirement days with the probation service.
DC Brown said: "Once we had Mahmood in our sights it was only a matter of time before he was brought to justice.
“Criminality of any kind will not be tolerated and we continue to work to deter those who operate criminal enterprises using the rail network."
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