An Algerian gang based in London used more than 5,000 stolen phones to steal thousands of pounds from victims, a court was told.
Over the course of 18 months, the gang worked with pickpockets and drive-by thieves to steal the phones, which they then used to tap into bank accounts, take out loans or otherwise steal money, with crimes totalling £5.1 million ($6.4 million). Officers believe many of the devices were then sold abroad.
Some victims had thousands of pounds transferred out of their accounts, while others saw payments come out for designer clothes worth hundreds.
Zakaria Senadjki, Ahmed Abdelhakim Belhanafi, Nazih Cheraitia, Riyadh Mamouni, all living in London, were convicted of various charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to receive stolen goods, on Friday at Southwark Crown Court.
“We do not underestimate the impact these crimes have on Londoners and are doing all we can to tackle phone thefts,” Commander Owain Richards, from London’s Metropolitan Police, said. “This includes increased policing in hotspot areas and making better use of technology.
“However we need the phone companies to play their part and make it more difficult for criminals to re-sell these stolen devices. The Met will be speaking with them in the coming weeks to push this issue even further.”
Senadjki, 31, Belhanafi, 25, Cheraitia, 34, Mamouni, 25, were convicted of conspiracy to receive stolen goods and jailed for between two years and eight months and eight years.
The group was tracked down by local officers from Lambeth and Southwark after victims of theft and robbery reported they had tracked their stolen devices to two main London addresses.
During a search of their homes, officers found 170 phones believed to have been stolen and they calculated that thousands more were victims of the group.
London has seen a wave of high-value street crime in the last year or so, and The National has exposed how a Rolex Ripper gang worked.
