Northamptonshire woman jailed over £350,000 bank scam

A Northamptonshire woman has been jailed over a bank con which netted more than £350,000.

Yvonne Rankine, 44, was part of a gang that used fake ID to pose as customers of Halifax and Lloyds TSB to take cash which was used to buy designer watches and foreign currency.

She was convicted after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in January and last week sentenced to two years, four months in prison by a judge at Leicester Crown Court.

Rankine, of Sedbergh Road in Corby, was coached by gang leaders Ahmad Laher and Haroon Isseharoon over how to visit banks in various parts of the country and impersonate legitimate account holders.

Zakkaria Sehailia, 25, from London, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for providing false documents used by Rankine.

Laher, 27 and 24-year-old Mohamed Jama — both from Leicester — and Laher, 28, from West Yorkshire will all be sentenced at a later date.

Detective Constable Matthew Swift from Leicestershire Police's Economic Crime Unit, said: "These individuals were part of an organised gang whose purpose was to commit fraud against financial organisations, accounts belonging to innocent members of the public were used to ‘piggyback’ the customers’ accounts.

“This was a complex and lengthy investigation involving a number of bank customers and two leading high street banks”.

"Fortunately those customers who were defrauded have received their money back via the financial institutions, but ultimately the victims of these offences are now those banks who were targeted."

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