A man has been sentenced to six years and one month in prison after he defrauded women he met online and pretended to be in a relationship with them.
Keyur Vyas, 32 (25.09.86) of East Ferry Road, Tower Hamlets, was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday, 1 May.
An investigation into Vyas’s activities was launched by the Metropolitan Police in October 2014. He was found to be committing fraud against six different women.
Between 2014-2017 Vyas was a recruitment agent. He befriended women online with the pretence of building a relationship with them.
He wined and dined them and would trick them into believing he was an affluent man working in finance and would use his commonalities such as religion and his wish to start a family.
Once he gained their trust Vyas would encourage them to invest in various business ventures for a large return.
Only the ventures didn’t exist and he was gambling the money away.
He even continued to put pressure and was abusive to the victims to continue to invest more money in order to get their money back.
He used fear tactics and stated that if they went to the police they would lose all their money.
It was only when they didn’t receive their money back that the women began to report their concerns to police.
Vyas pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation in March 2019, the remaining two charges will lie on file.
The total loss for all the charges is approximately £808,942.
Detective Constable Andy Chapman of the Central Specialist Command said:
“Vyas used a tried and tested technique to commit fraud. He used the trust he had gained to get them to invest in non-existent companies.
“He went as far as having fake contracts drawn up with outlandish conditions, but essentially he used the relationship to get their money”.
“Vyas was selfish and cruel in his actions by emotionally involving the victims and conning them out of a combined loss of approximately £639,133.00.
“Unfortunately we see cases like this fairly often and my advice to anyone in an online relationship whatever the nature is never to send personal details or money to someone who you have never met in person.”
Join our WhatsApp community!
ESN is now on WhatsApp, and we want you to join our 'read only' channel.
To join, you need to have WhatsApp on your device. All you need to do is click the link and press 'Join community'.
No one will be able to see who is signed up, and no one can send messages except the ESN team.You won't get any 'SPAM' just news stories & videos written & produced by our team of former emergency services personnel.
Joining our WhatsApp channel is a great way to help support our work and best of all, it is free!
If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Before you read or leave a comment...
In an age where mainstream media often overlooks the sacrifices made by our emergency services personnel, Emergency Services News is a critical fact-based voice you can trust
While we persist in our mission, we need your help to continue. Your donation directly enables us to produce high-quality content that elevates the stories and challenges faced by the men and women who serve, stories that are often ignored elsewhere.
We deeply appreciate your support. Your contribution empowers us to keep shining a light on the remarkable, yet often overlooked, individuals who serve our communities every day. Thank you for standing with us.
You can support emergency services news from as little as £1. It only takes a minute. Every contribution, however big or small, is vital for our future.
Please help us to continue to highlight the life-saving work of the emergency services, NHS and armed forces by becoming a supporter.
Detective Constable Andrew Chapman is himself an online bully, he has recently been disciplined for sending online abuse