Two members of an Indian gang of phone scammers who fleeced thousands of pounds from the elderly in cold calls have been jailed for a total of eight years.
The gang used high pressure sales techniques to sell victims bogus supplements at ten times the high street price, even claiming they could prevent cancer.
Money launderers Fredy Fernandes and Salvador Rodrigues, based in Peterborough, would then receive the money into business bank accounts and send it on to India.
Fernandes, 44, and Rodrigues, 44, were both jailed for four years at St Albans Crown Court after they were found guilty of acquiring criminal property.
Money launderers Fredy Fernandes (left) and Salvador Rodrigues (right) are shown outside St Albans Crown Court ahead of their trial
The gang was rumbled after pensioners ranging in age from 80 to 94 complained of ‘pushy’ sellers who ‘would not take no for an answer’.
During their trial, the jury heard how the scam was run from India, from where a team of high pressure sales people targeted vulnerable pensioners in the UK.
The vitamins they had sold pensioners had been manufactured in India and shipped to Britain, where tests found they had no beneficial value whatsoever.
Although the pair were not involved in selling the goods, they had had control of the two company bank accounts used to launder the money that came rolling in.
Recorder Samantha Cohen told the pair that the scam they had been part of had left elderly victims ‘distressed and anxious and shattered their confidence’.
Some had lived in fear of persistent cold calls and, because of the embarrassment they felt, had not told their families what was happening.
Prosecutor Andrew Johnson said: ‘They defrauded some of the most vulnerable members of society, playing on fears as to their health in order to raid their wallets.
‘It is about the elderly and infirm being sold vitamins and other food and dietary supplements that they did not need, at grossly excessive prices.’
Mr Fernandes was convicted of converting £111,352 of criminal property that was paid into a Santander bank account held in the name of House of Naturecare Ltd.
He was also found guilty of acquiring criminal property in the sum of £15,590 that had been paid to him.
Mr Rodrigues was found guilty of converting £238,495 of criminal property that was paid into a Lloyds bank account in the name of Nutri Care Quest Limited.
He too was convicted of acquiring criminal property in the sum of £10,060 that had been paid to him.
They had claimed they were innocent, having been brought in by others in India to run the business.
Their home in Peterborough was raided on September 22 last year, where boxes of vitamins, invoices and address labels were recovered.
The prosecutor said others were involved in the businesses, including three people in India.