Scammer jailed for defrauding woman out of £22k

A man who defrauded a woman out of £22,000 in an “extremely convincing” banking scam has been jailed.

Moisa Constantin-Florin falsely claimed to work for Santander bank when he called the victim to warn her of fraudulent activity on her account.

Cheshire Police said he managed to convince the victim that she needed to transfer her money to a new account.

Constantin-Florin, 24, formerly of Northwich, Cheshire, was jailed for 15 months at Chester Crown Court.

He had admitted conspiracy to commit fraud and possession of criminal property.

Cheshire Police said the woman, who was in Edinburgh, had become suspicious after transferring £21,996.38 into the new account on 28 June 2021.

She then contacted Santander directly and was informed that the call was not genuine.

The bank’s investigators found that the money had been moved to Constantin-Florin’s account and were able to recover £16,996.38 of the stolen cash.

However, £5,000 had already been moved to other accounts and could not be retrieved.

Constantin-Florin, who was living in Northwich at the time of the offence, was arrested by police in London on 22 August, 2022, after officers stop checked a car on Barking Road.

During a search of the vehicle, officers seized £4,135 cash, along with a number of mobile phones, sim cards and notepads which contained various bank account details.

Det Con Claire Heatley said: “Florin was extremely convincing when he contacted the victim and persuaded her to transfer all of the money.

“Thanks to her suspicions she quickly reported the incident to Santander and they agreed to reimburse the victim for all the money she had lost, meaning that she is not out of pocket.

“Sadly this is not always the case, and in the age of digital and telephone banking it’s essential that we all take extra care.”

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