Jeremy Corbyn supported man later convicted of fraud uncovered by terror police

Jeremy Corbyn lent his support to a young man who went on to be convicted of his part in a massive fraud which was uncovered by counter-terrorism police.

The Labour leader's name was dropped by a defence lawyer in a failed bid to convince a judge to allow Mohamed Dahir, 23, to remain on bail despite being found guilty of his involvement in the £904,000 scam.

The con was uncovered by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) after a separate terror probe found suspicious payments into a bank account of someone who is now in Syria.

In all, nine defendants have been convicted of taking part in the "cruel, callous and calculating" scam targeting elderly victims from across southern England with an average age of 83.

A jury at the Old Bailey found Dahir, Shakaria Aden, 21, and Yasser Abukar, 23, guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud between May last year and May 2015. Ibrahim Farah, 23, was cleared of the same charge.

Mohammed Abokar, 28, was found guilty of converting criminal property - £9,000 belonging to Nanette Goldthorpe - on or around January 29 this year.

Five other defendants have already pleaded guilty to their involvement.

Following the verdicts, Dahir's barrister Patrick Harte said Islington North MP Mr Corbyn had sent a letter in support of his original successful bail application in May saying that the defendant had "roots in the area".

But Judge Anuja Dhir QC refused to continue bail, saying that now he had been found guilty there were significant grounds to believe he would fail to surrender.

She remanded the four defendants in custody ahead of sentencing on a date to be fixed in the new year.

Afterwards, Commander Richard Walton, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), said: "We uncovered this fraud after a separate terrorist investigation found suspicious payments into a bank account of an individual who is now believed to have travelled to Syria.

"This callous group of criminals stole vast sums of money from extremely vulnerable and elderly people from across the country.

"Their despicable actions have had a terrible and devastating impact on their victims, with some losing their life savings. The targeting of vulnerable men and women in their 80s and 90s is quite simply beyond belief.

"This was a scam on a huge national scale detected by specialist financial investigators who have stopped the targeting of even more victims. Our investigation remains ongoing and we will continue to arrest and prosecute anyone involved in this fraud."

Robert Hutchinson, CPS London reviewing lawyer, added: "This was a sophisticated and well-planned fraud which has devastated the victims and robbed them of much of their life savings.

"These defendants were cruel, callous and calculating in committing this fraud, demonstrated by their treatment of one victim who had just been diagnosed with cancer and was told to miss his doctor's appointment in order to go and withdraw money from the bank.

During the trial, prosecutor Kevin Dent said it was difficult to know how extensive the fraud was but at least £600,000 was taken from 18 victims.

The victims, aged in their 70s, 80s and 90s and from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Bedfordshire, London and Kent, were phoned up by men posing as police officers investigating a fraud at their bank.

They were advised to transfer money or hand over cash for "safekeeping", when in reality they were being ripped off.

The fake officer might say they had someone in custody who was caught attempting to use a cloned card in a high street store such as Argos.

Mr Dent told the jury: "Can you imagine your alarm on receiving a phone call like that from somebody purporting to be a police officer, saying there is fraud going on in your bank account?

"If you can imagine the alarm you might have, then think about the amount of alarm and distress to somebody considerably older than yourselves, perhaps less robust."

By 2015, the con had moved on to include informing victims there was an "inside job" involving counterfeit money, the court heard.

Mr Dent said the variety of "tricks" deployed by the conmen included playing on family ties.

One victim was told a grandchild was caught up in the fraud and co-operating with Police was the only way of sorting out that problem, Mr Dent said.

Time and again, the conmen would advise their victims to call 999 or their bank's fraud department to verify the details straight away, but they would not hang up so the elderly people would simply be reconnected.

The prosecutor told jurors: "It's very clever but something very simple and something that was used again and again. A really good con trick."

One victim, an 89-year-old woman, was conned into transferring £9,000 into the account of Abokar, who withdrew the cash and "almost immediately" took it into the Hippodrome Casino.

An elderly man lost £113,000 while another woman was tricked out of £130,000, the court heard.

Mr Dent said the fraudsters believed that once the money had been turned into cash it would then be "anonymous" and police would never be able to trace it back to the victims.

But the primary organiser of the fraud, who has already pleaded guilty, was found with a number of cash bands from the same bank branch as one of the victims, jurors were told.