Criminals who pretended to be police officers to con elderly and vulnerable victims out of more than £200,000 in a nationwide fraud have been jailed for more than 30 years.
The men were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court for the offences which took place between 23 July and 15 September 2014.
The group would call victims on their landlines with the caller identifying themselves as a police officer from the Metropolitan Police investigating a fraud.
They would convince victims that their bank account had been compromised before manipulating them to hand over cash.
A total of 25 victims were identified during the investigation by the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit.
Officers from the unit also prevented four other people being conned out of £28,000.
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Spencer of the Regional Command Team, said: “This was part of an organised criminal network which was involved in a large scale conspiracy to commit fraud targeting elderly and vulnerable people.
“The actions of this group have had a devastating impact on the lives of the victims. The group abused the often trusting nature of people to defraud them out of large sums of money – often their life savings. Some of the victims have not had all of their money back.
“Thanks, however, to the detailed and thorough investigation by my team, and in particular Detective Constable Heather Shearer, the nine have been brought to justice and most of them now have time in prison to consider the consequences of their actions and the impact on the people they have defrauded.
“We know that often the reporting of these types of offences is low – and I would urge anyone who has been the victim of this type of offence but who hasn’t reported it to call police.”
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