Four fraudsters who scammed a total of nearly £551,883 out of 100 victims have been jailed.

The four men were sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on Wednesday (July 24) after the gang were found guilty of conspiracies to commit fraud and to money launder.

Darnel Morrison, a 20-year-old of Tintern Avenue, Edgware, was among one of the four members. Mr Morrison pleaded guilty in January 2019 and was given a suspended prison sentence of 18 months, with a community order.

The other fraudsters include Gift Mangava from Swanley, Alex Scrutu from Newham and Adideji Atitebi from Tilbury.

Numerous bank accounts were opened by Mr Mangava using counterfeit identity documents, which other fraudsters would store the proceeds from techniques like fake adverts for non-existent goods and services online.

Another scam involved specialist technology which manipulated the sender ID on text messages to appear the texts received were from a bank. Victims would provide personal details which were then transferred to the burner bank accounts.

After Mr Mangava’s arrest on June 1, 2018, phone analysis linked him to Mr Scrutu, Mr Atitebi and Mr Morrison.

Sergeant James Tipple, who led the investigation, said: “Our investigation has exposed their criminal activities and I hope this sentencing acts as a deterrent to others involved in this type of criminality.”

Officers from the Falcon Organised Crime Unit first launched an investigation into the gang in May 2018.