London: A 28-year-old Indian-origin man in the UK has been sentenced to eight years in prison for defrauding elderly victims of more than 260,000 pounds by impersonating as a cop and bank staff, police said. Kishan Bhatt of no fixed address was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court in July for committing nine counts of fraud by false representation after pleading guilty in November 2022 at the same court.

It was established that between September 2020 and May 2022, Bhatt targeted nine victims -- aged between 29 and 90 -- who were approached whilst he posed as a bank employee, a landlord and a police officer. Once he had gained their trust he transferred money out of their accounts.

On one occasion, between October 6 and December 2, 2021, Bhatt posed as a police officer and bank employee in order to make a gain of 147,000 pounds. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Specialist Crime’s Economic Crime team visited a 90-year-old victim at her home address in Colchester in 2022.

She had been contacted by a man at the beginning of the year who identified himself as a police officer stating they had arrested a male with her bank card, police said. The caller said she needed to protect her money and to do this she needed to invest in gold and jewellery as fraudsters would not be able to access it this way.

She was instructed to buy expensive watches in excess of 90,000 pounds over a two week period and then Bhatt’s accomplice, Artiom Kiseliov, attended her home address to collect these on a number of occasions. On January 25, 2022, Bhatt and Kiseliov drove her to Hatton Garden in an attempt to get her to buy gold as she believed she was helping the police with their investigation.

The men had told her that the jewellers were corrupt and they would value the gold she bought, which would confirm the corruption. The jewellers asked for ID and asked the woman to return another day whilst they completed identification checks and ordered the gold to store. She was driven to other jewellery stores and made purchases, however these were still pending when police were alerted and were cancelled by the jewellers.

Detectives launched an investigation and identified the vehicle Bhatt and Kiseliov used to transport the victim to the jewellers. Further enquiries obtained a phone number for Bhatt under an alias he was using. The vehicle was located and detectives found a receipt in the console for a petrol station for the day in question which identified Kiseliov purchasing a coffee. Kiseliov was located and arrested.

He was sentenced to more than four years in prison at Kingston Crown Court on April 4, 2022 after pleading guilty to one count of fraud by false representation. Through extensive data work, officers were able to arrest Bhatt from a hotel in Finsbury Park on May 22, 2022.

“Fraud is far from a victimless offence, and the repercussions for the numerous victims involved in this situation extend beyond mere financial loss. The emotional toll has been immense, leading to severe distress and devastation for those affected. Without the bank’s goodwill gesture, these victims would have been deprived of their life savings,” Detective Constable Sarah Cook, from Met’s Economic Crime team, said. The majority of the money has been refunded by banks.