By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-04-05 09:26:18 | Updated at 2025-04-05 20:09:49
10 hours ago
A young mother who boasted on social media after scamming an elderly professor out of family jewellery worth more than £300,000 has been jailed for 32 months.
Leonnie Charles, 23, was part of a criminal gang that targeted vulnerable pensioners by pretending to be police officers.
The gang stole more than £416,000 from 27 victims with an average age of 78.
Charles was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.
Charles served as the "courier" in the operation, visiting victims' homes to collect money and valuables
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Charles served as the "courier" in the operation, visiting victims' homes to collect money and valuables.
In one case, she collected a red suitcase containing jewellery that had been in Professor Bhansali's family for four generations.
Charles then posted "mission complete" on Snapchat, boasting about her criminal activities.
Prosecutor Gary Venturi told the court that the then 19-year-old would pass stolen items to gang leader Faris Kayani, receiving £100 in cash for each collection.
Professor Bhansali described feeling "robbed of a connection" to his relatives after losing the jewellery that had been in his family for four generations.
He said he considered returning to work to "recuperate" the financial loss.
Another victim, an 85-year-old pensioner, said she felt "paralysed" when she realised the £4,200 taken from her was part of a scam.
The elderly woman revealed the stolen money had been set aside to pay for her own funeral.
Charles was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation
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Michael Harrison, mitigating, told the court that Charles had been provided with a two-bedroom flat by a charity, which she would lose if imprisoned.
"For her to go into custody now at this stage is just going to have a devastating impact on her life," he said.
Judge Rufus Taylor acknowledged the "obvious effect" imprisonment would have on Charles' daughter but added: "What she did is pretty awful."
The judge noted the gang "targeted a proportion of the population who were the most vulnerable".
Gang leader Kayani was jailed for five years and six months earlier this year.
