Ilford Recorder
February 22, 2014
A trainee special constable tried to con an elderly woman out of £10,000 and valuable jewellery by posing as a courier, a court has heard.
Naiem Hussain, 21, allegedly took part in the scam by escorting 86-year-old Doris King to a bank in Hainault to collect the money.
He turned up at her flat in Chigwell in February last year after she was called by a person claiming to be a policeman saying her debit card had been cloned.
“Pc Brown” told Ms King she would have to bring the money along with a gold watch and a pearl necklace to the Old Bailey to prove she was not involved in the fraud, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard on Tuesday.
Sheilagh Davies, prosecuting, said: “She had reservations. The next morning she was called by PC Brown and told her that a courier would be with her a little later that morning.
“She gave him her address and shortly a buzzer went at her door and the courier had arrived.
“The courier was this defendant, Hussain, who was at the time a trainee special police constable.”
Ms King was told to go to two banks and withdraw £5,000 from each and if anyone asked she could tell them she needed the cash to get her boiler fixed.
Hussain allegedly helped her into a taxi to Lloyds bank in Manford Way.
But staff became suspicious when Ms King asked for the funds and called police, who arrested Hussain at a nearby bus stop.
He admits being “the courier” but denies knowing his actions were helping to defraud the elderly woman.
Ms Davies said: “Hussain was said to be regularly texting on his phone throughout the journey in the car and told the driver he did know the old lady.”