A Huddersfield man has been jailed after he conned people into handing over credit cards or money, often by posing as a police officer looking into a fraud on their bank account.

Leeds Crown Court heard in some cases Zain Jamal Khan rang potential victims asking if they had used their credit cards at B&Q but when many said they had not he moved on to a different tale.

And on another occasion he tricked one victim into handing over £5,000 for a supposed police ‘sting’ operation.

Andrew Stranex, prosecuting, said he would tell the person contacted a fraud had been committed on their account suggesting their postman was involved.

Using the name of various police officers he asked for personal details and then in some cases he told them to put their card in an envelope and hand it to a security officer representing the police who would call round.

“Unfortunately a number of people did do that,” said Mr Stranex. By the time one woman told her son about what she had done and he checked her account after her card was collected £2,300 had been taken from it.

Another man was told a police constable wanted to speak to him because his postman had opened his post and used his credit cards.

He was convinced to go his bank in Dewsbury and withdraw £5,000 from his account which was to be used to trap the fraudster.

Mr Stranex added: “He thought he was helping the police in a sting operation to catch the postman but instead he was working for the fraudsters.”

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Mr Stranex told the court yesterday that Khan was the person at the centre of the operation with a number of telephones “which were being used to contact tens if not hundreds of people in an attempt to get them to hand over their details. Thankfully not everybody fell for it.”

After police were alerted to the fraud they were looking for Khan who “made himself scarce” but was eventually arrested at a hotel in Bradford where a laptop and telephones were seized from his room.

Information on those linked him to the frauds. By then 11 victims had lost £20,343.92.

The court heard Khan was on licence at the time for a previous jail sentence for fraud.

Mark McKone, representing Khan, said while in custody on remand he had missed the birth of his first child and “is ashamed about that.”

He had also been commended in prison for helping to save the life of another inmate who hanged himself.

Khan, 28 of Cowcliffe Hill Road, Cowcliffe, admitted conspiracy to defraud and was jailed for 43 months.

Sentencing him the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said he had an appalling record for his age from robbery in 2005 to more recent frauds.

He said such offences caused great distress for those who lost money as a result of being conned into giving details or handing over cards thinking their accounts had been compromised when they had not.

He added that fortunately others “did not fall prey to your lies.”