Feezan Hameed Choudhary, 28 (police mugshot pictured) was jailed in 2016 for 11 years for money laundering
The mastermind behind one of Britain’s largest ever cyber scams spent £3million on shopping sprees in Harrods, wild parties with popstars and sports cars, a court heard.
Feezan Hameed Choudhary, 28, was jailed for 11 years in 2016 for spearheading a ‘vishing’ scam that tricked 750 RBS and Lloyds customers out of a total of £113million.
Detectives nicknamed him ‘The Voice’ after they discovered how Choudhary, known as ‘Fizzy’, would put on Scottish, Welsh and posh English accents when he called victims’ landlines and posed as fraud experts from their banks.
He has been hauled back to Southwark Crown Court for a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The hearing was told he raked in £1.5million a month from the scam, splashing out on Bentleys, Lamborghinis and flying car cleaners 8,000 miles from Lahore, Pakistan to where he lived in Glasgow to polish his vehicles.
He also spent £3million on trips to Harrods and booked a popstar to sing at one of his parties, the court heard.
Edward Franklin, prosecuting, said Choudhary had benefited from a total of £19million of the money the scam yielded.
He told the court: ‘Of that £19million we conclude that £14.8million is recoverable.
‘If he has it, and it is up to him to prove if he does not.’
He told the court that it was up to the defendant to prove that he did not have the money.
Choudhary, nicknamed ‘Fizzy, spearheaded a ‘vishing’ scam that tricked 750 RBS and Lloyds customers out of a total of £113million. He spent up to £3million a month on fast cars (pictured)
‘The defendant liked to conceal that he owned any property by getting other people to purchase it,’ said Mr Franklin.
‘It is for the defendant to prove that he does not, and if he can not prove that he does not, it is for the defendant to pay the consequences.’
The prosecution is relying on evidence from another convicted fraudster called Muhammad Azhar, who proved to be a credible witness during the original trial.
Mr Franklin told the court that, according to Azhar, mastermind Choudhary received up to £1.5million a month during the scam.
He said: ‘If Azhar is right the defendant could have received around £17million in the period of the indictment alone,’ but added the total benefit was estimated to be £19million.
‘An average of £500,000 – £1.500,000 for 34 months between January 2013 and October 2015,’ he added.
He said that Azhar’s evidence was that Choudhary paid a fortune into bank accounts in Lahore, Pakistan and owned a villa with live-in chefs and valets.
He said: ‘It had a jacuzzi with a basement spa. He said his family lived in it, that they employed servants and chefs.
Choudhary, nicknamed ‘The Voice’ by police over his telephone scam is pictured posed up with a tiger in the desert
‘Muhammad Akram also claimed to visit the defendant’s Pakistan address.’
He told the court that this account contrasted with Choudhary’s own account that his family in Pakistan now live in a two bedroom maisonette, costing £191 a month to rent.
He said: ‘The defendant can not be right when he says he has nothing overseas.
‘He can’t be right when he says all the spending took place in the UK.’
Azhar estimated Choudhary spent ‘around £3million’ in spending sprees in Harrods alone, using other people to buy Rolexes and other luxury goods on his behalf.
Mr Franklin said Choudhary not only produced a music video for Pakistani popstar Bilal Saeed but also had him play at his engagement party.
Choudhary and several accomplices were eventually caught after ripping off 750 victims in the biggest cyber-fraud the Metropolitan Police has ever seen.
Stolen funds were moved to a bank account ‘at the touch of a button’ and then distributed across a number of other accounts before the cash was withdrawn by ‘money mules’.
The fraudsters used legitimate bank phone numbers to confuse victims.
Pictures of Choudhary’s various sports cars after they were impounded by authorities
Legitimate bank phone numbers were used to confuse victims.
Pitman Blackstock Solicitors were fleeced out of £2,260,625.89 after getting a call from ‘Peter’ claiming he was calling from the security department Lloyds Bank, the court heard.
On another occasion, £750,000 was transferred to the scammers in seconds.
Choudhary used aliases including ‘Simon Hughes’ and Matthew Fraser’, telling customers they had been hacked by ‘someone in Aberdeen called Stevenson or King’.
He was the ‘leader and prime mover’ and made almost all the calls, making sure that they appeared to be coming from a location that didn’t arise suspicion, the court was told.
The gang would only transfer up to £100,000 at a time as banks would instantly question anything above that.
During the case, victims spoke of how they were ‘taken in very easily’ by Choudhary and were left feeling ‘devastated’ and ‘traumatised’.
He was rumbled after a series of police raids in Glasgow and the West Midlands last year.
He was then caught trying to board a flight from Paris to Pakistan with a fake passport in November 2015 before being returned to the UK to face justice
The confiscation hearing continues.