A 79-year-old woman who was scammed out of more than £14,000 by a gang linked to 'Baldy' Shahid's brother has condemned the 'wicked' con artists as the three men await sentencing.
Ahsan Shahid, 41, Sean Singh, 21, and Duncan Currie, 42, admitted their guilt last month and appeared at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday, where their sentencing hearing was pushed back until November.
The fraudsters posed as police officers to manipulate the pensioner into handing over the five-figure sum.
How the scam unfolded
The woman was contacted by a man who claimed her identity had been stolen by someone working in her local bank branch. Over the next five days, she was subjected to relentless pressure to repeatedly withdraw cash from her bank account, which was then collected from her home by the gang.
Speaking to STV News, she said: "They said if I told anyone, even my family, that it might ruin the police investigation, so you don’t want to cause problems for the police. I just went along with it."
She continued: "I wasn’t really suspicious. I thought, well, if it’s the police. Throughout it all, they gave me the feeling that I was being a good citizen if I did as I was told. That’s what kept me hooked."
Once the gang left her alone, she had been fleeced of over £14,000. The fraudsters maintained regular contact during the scam and urged her to keep her mobile phone charged. They even told the woman she was being monitored on CCTV.
Wider criminal operation
Even when she had doubts, the woman was left so 'frazzled' she did not know how to get out of the situation. She said: "I was getting more and more frazzled. It began to dawn on me that I was being scammed, but I didn’t know how to get out of it because I’d been told not to tell a soul."
"It almost implied that nasty things might happen if I suggested it was a scam. It was a horrible feeling. I felt very isolated, very alone and manipulated."
The gang targeted other vulnerable pensioners aged between 70 and 90 between October 2022 and November 2024 across Glasgow, East Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire and Ayrshire, raking in £600,000 in total.
Detectives believe they used online phone directories to target the elderly in affluent areas. They operated from a private let property in East Kilbride, using the base to make calls to unsuspecting victims with a prepared script.
One woman was swindled out of £32,750 in cash, £7,679.44 in euros and a £16,500 GMT Master II Batman Rolex. They also attempted to obtain from her £13,000 in cash, cryptocurrency to the value of £10,000, a £5,144 Valcambi 100 gram gold bar and a £24,204 Metalor 500 gram gold bar.
Court details and sentencing
Judge Lord Renucci called for pre-sentencing reports ahead of a sentencing hearing on November 20. During Friday’s hearing, advocate depute Scott McKenzie explained the scam had involved "considerable planning", with the fraudsters using residential telephone directories to get the names, addresses and contact details of targets.
The victims were aged from around 65 into their 90s and lived mainly in Scotland’s central belt. Mr McKenzie said: "The modus operandi of the group was to initiate contact with intended victims by telephone, while pretending to be a police officer, bank fraud investigator or fraud department staff. The caller would explain to the victim that there had been alleged misuse of their cards or bank account."
"Many of the victims were provided with bogus telephone numbers to call to verify the alleged frauds." He said the victims were then persuaded to "assist in alleged 'investigations' or stings" into suspected bank employees by withdrawing large sums of money, typically between £6,000 and £8,000. A courier, often carrying a fake ID, would then meet the victim and take the money, pretending they would be safeguarding it.
In some cases, the group induced victims to repeat this process multiple times, with some handing over tens of thousands of pounds. In other cases, Mr McKenzie said, victims were duped into transferring money into "mule" accounts, or to purchase high-value goods.
Some victims’ bank cards were also obtained by the group "on the pretence of being compromised", and used to buy goods including luxury clothing, Apple devices, and, on one occasion, a motorcycle. Mr McKenzie said the group created the "veneer of legitimacy" by forging documents including a passport, driving licence, bank employee documents, and a fake NHS ID.
They also instructed their victims "not to tell their family or police about the investigation". A police investigation codenamed Operation Hatpin identified a property in East Kilbride as the "hub" of the group’s activities, with Singh and Shahid being seen leaving the property at times relevant to the offending.
Mobile phones, sim cards and a computer linked to the fraud were all found at the address, and Shahid and Singh were also carrying mobiles linked with many of the fraudulent schemes when they were arrested. The investigation found that over a two-year period, 376 telephone calls had been made to one of the bogus numbers used by the group, with Mr McKenzie saying this showed "potentially hundreds of potential targets" had called it in the belief they were contacting their bank.
At the end of the hearing, Lord Renucci called for criminal justice social work reports on the accused to be prepared ahead of sentencing. Singh, Shahid and Currie, who were present in court wearing black tops, were ordered to remain in custody. A confiscation order in respect of the three men has been made by the Crown.
Shahid is the brother of Imran 'Baldy' Shahid and Zeeshan 'Crazy' Shahid, who are serving time for the murder of 15-year-old Kriss Donald in Glasgow. Kriss was taken on a 200-mile journey to Dundee and back to Glasgow, where he was stabbed 13 times, doused in petrol and set alight on Clyde Walkway, near Celtic's then-training ground at Barrowfield. The court heard he may have still been alive when he was set on fire. Imran is serving a minimum of 25 years while Zeeshan is serving 23 years behind bars.
