A teenage conman who posed as a courier working with police to swindle pensioners out of thousands of pounds has been locked up.

Ahmed Yasin, of Ming Street in London, admitted committing fraud after two people in Faversham handed over cash when he visited their home in May.

The 18-year-old was part of a gang which duped pensioners after receiving calls from people claiming to be from the police.

Yasin will now spend time behind bars after he was jailed for 15 months at Maidstone Crown Court this morning.

Police say the gang managed to steal £21,000 from their victims during the con.

They would phone vulnerable residents claiming to be from the police and that someone had tried to use their bank card illegally.

The criminals would then ask for help with an undercover "sting" police were allegedly arranging.

Victims asked for the caller to ring them back via 101 or 999 in a bid to prove their call was legitimately from police.

But the conmen managed to convince them to keep the call going and was still speaking with the fraudsters.

They were then told to withdraw cash and hand over to a courier who would visit them under the impression the money would form evidence as part of the investigation.

The residents from Faversham handed over "several thousand pounds" to Yasin but later in the day became suspicious they had been victims of fraud and reported the incident to police.

Yasin was arrested in Bexley on May 13 - the same day he had visited the pair in Faversham - in a car on the A2. Officers found two piles of cash inside the vehicle which matched the amount stolen from the victims.

Det Sgt Marc Cananur of the Serious Economic Crime Unit at Kent Police said: "Yasin targeted vulnerable people in order to steal vast quantities of cash. In this instance it was rewarding to be able to return the money to the rightful owners, but this is not always possible.

"The police will never ask people to withdraw money for an investigation, however these conmen are convincing and use other details they know about their victim as a way of making them believe they are genuine. They are relentless and persistently target people if they feel they are going to be successful in getting them to part with their money.

"I would like to urge people with vulnerable family members to make sure they are aware of scams like this and report any suspicious calls to the police or Action Fraud."

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