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£600k scamlands fraudster in jail


A FRAUDSTER who tricked 27 people inKent out of over £600,000 has been jailed for six years and ninemonths. Two victims of Samheel Baig (pic-


tured) came from Maidstone, and lostmore than £30,000. Baig (39), ofLanarkshire,has been


jailed for his role in defrauding 27 victims from October 2017 to June 2018 by pretending to be a fraud in- vestigator and tricking victims into sendingmoney to “safe” accounts. His behaviour came to the atten-


ntion of Kent and Essex Serious CrimeDirectorate onMarch 23 after theywere alertedby a victiminCan- terbury. She had received a phone call


fromsomeone claiming to be a fraud investigator. She was told to go to her bank and transfer £6,500 to an- other account as the investigator be- lieved she could become a victimof fraud. She was told not to tell anyone at


the bank why she was transferring themoney. The victimreturned home and re-


ceived another call telling her to go back to the bank to transfer a further £5,600. En route she became concerned


and called Kent Police. Officers executeda searchwarrant


in Scotlandon June 5 andfoundtwo phones containing information on potential victims, along with their bank details. Baig was found to have been in-


volvedin contacting victims andco- ordinating the transfer of funds into a number of “safe” accounts. Each victim was called by some-


one claiming to be a fraudinvestiga- tor who had noticed suspicious ac- tivity on their bank accounts. He would then ask the victim to


transfermoney to a beneficiary bank account as part of the investigation. Baigwas sentencedatCanterbury


Crown Court on Monday, July 30, after he admittedconspiring to com- mit fraud by false representation. Detective Constable Mark New-


man said: “Baig and other conspira- tors were relentless in their approach in contacting as many people as possible to try and con- vince themto transfer theirmoney. “He was a key part of an organ-


isedcrime groupwhopreyedon the most vulnerable for his own finan- cial gain andshowedno remorse for the effect his actions had on his vic- tims. “I would encourage friends and


family members to pass on fraud prevention advice to help protect residents who may not be aware of this type of scam.”


Trucker had drugs in cab


ACOURTheardthat cocaine smug- gled in a lorrywith a street value of more than £650,000wasdestinedfor a service station inMaidstone. The Lithuanian truck driver’s pa-


perwork stated hewas transporting sushi, bratwurst andchocolate from Germany to Telford, but 8kg of the classAdrug and800 cigaretteswere found in his cab. It took the jury just 20 minutes at


CanterburyCrownCourt to convict Vaidotas Tuoma (52) of drug-smug- gling onMonday, July 31. The court heardBorder Force offi-


cers stopped Tuoma’s lorry at the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles on February 5,where he toldofficers he had been present when the lorry was loaded, but had taken a nine-


hour break inHolland. A search of his cab revealed the


cigarettes and a number of tape- wrapped packages under his bunk, which contained cocaine. Tuoma was arrested and brought


to the UK for questioning by Na- tional Crime Agency officers. He told them he was approached on February 4 by a Russian-speaking man at a service station on the Dutch/Belgian border who asked himto bring tobacco to the UK and deliver it to a service station in Maidstone. The driver claimed he would be


met by someone who would say “tobacco” and he would be “reim- bursed” after giving over the pack- ages.


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