Corby woman jailed over role in huge bank fraud

A Corby woman who played a key role in a huge scam which swindled thousands of pounds from Halifax and Lloyds TSB bank customers has been jailed.

Yvonne Rankine, 44, visited banks across the country to impersonate the legitimate bank account holders, furnished with false identity documents.

Rankine, of Sedbergh Road, met up with third parties whose current accounts were used to link both accounts, and was coached and managed by fellow crook Ahmad Laher.

Three other defendants helped her as the gang were involved in 19 reports of fraud between February and June 2017.

Haroon Isseharoon was involved in directing her, Zakkaria Sehailia provided the false documents and Mohamed Jama drove Rankine to the banks on several occasions..

Between them they used legitimate customer account information and false identification to defraud customer accounts.

The money was then subsequently used to purchase high value watches and foreign currency worth more than £350,000.

Last week at Leicester Crown Court Rankine was jailed for two years and four months after admitting conspiracy to commit fraud.

Sehailia, 25, of St Georges Road, Forest Gate, London, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud after a trial in October and was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Jama, 24, of Arnold Street, Leicester, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation at a hearing in October.

Laher, 27, of Oadby, Leicester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud at a hearing in August.

Isseharoon, 28, of Market Place, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud at a hearing in October.

They will all be sentenced at a later date.

Detective Constable Matthew Swift said: “This was a complex and lengthy investigation involving a number of bank customers and two leading high street banks.

“With the assistance of the City of London’s Joint Fraud Taskforce Collective Response we were able to bring this investigation to a successful conclusion.

“The taskforce is a multi-agency unit established to investigate cross border fraud. The force took the lead on the investigation due to the number of offences which occurred in the city and county. During the two-year investigation a number of people were arrested across the country and numerous interviews were conducted.

"These individuals were part of an organised gang whose purpose was to commit large number of fraud against financial organisations, accounts belonging to innocent members of the public were used to ‘piggyback’ the customers’ accounts. Fortunately those customers who were defrauded have received their money back via the financial institutions, but ultimately the victims of these offences are now those banks who were targeted.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this investigation and hope it goes someway in reassuring the public that we will leave no stone unturned to bring people to justice, no matter how careful offenders think they were at covering their tracks.”

Neil Taylor, from the City of London Police and co-chair of the Joint Fraud Taskforce Collective Response, said: “This case is an excellent example of collaborative working from the Joint Fraud Taskforce Collective Response as a result of shared intelligence. UK Finance pulled together an excellent intelligence package, with assistance from the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and the banking industry, which led to Leicestershire Police successfully apprehending these criminals.

“This is a superb result for the Joint Fraud Taskforce Collective Response and emphasises that law enforcement cannot tackle this problem alone. It is only by working together with a common purpose, using initiatives like the taskforce, that we can fight these criminals and protect the UK against fraud.”