Conmen Jonathan Mintah (left) and Oscar Yeboah

by Julia Roberts

Two conmen part of a gang that netted almost £100,000 by posing as police officers and bank officials to dupe their elderly victims into handing over their bank cards have been jailed for a total of nine years.

The fraudsters - one of whom was said to live a champagne lifestyle with "Premiership footballers and pop stars as neighbours" - deliberately targeted people over the age of 60, with one aged 98 and another suffering from lung cancer.

They convinced them in a series of telephone calls that their bank details had been compromised as part of a major scam.

Within minutes of a victim falling for their ruse, a caller would arrive at their home to collect the bank card and associated personal identification number.

It would then be used to withdraw cash from nearby ATMs or, as the gang grew in confidence, to buy thousands of pounds worth of goods and services from shops and pubs.

Maidstone Crown Court heard they even tried to set up new bank accounts into which they could transfer money from any other accounts or cash ISAs the victims may have had.

A total of 28 people were conned, including 13 from Gravesend and 10 from Maidstone, with an average age was 83.

Yeboah and Mintah were jailed at Maidstone Crown Court

Oscar Yeboah, 27, of Woodford Avenue, Ilford, Essex, and Jonathan Mintah, 26, of Atherton Road, Forest Gate, London, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation between December 1 2010 and March 31 2011.

The total loss to their victims was £99,873, although the gang also attempted to obtain a further £60,000.

In the year leading up to their arrests, Yeboah was said to be driving hire cars including a Bentley, Aston Martin, Porsche and a Mercedes, as well as living in a penthouse flat in a plush gated complex in Canary Wharf.

His neighbours were said to include "well-known, familiar faces" from the football world, as well as rap artists.

Deepak Kapur, prosecuting, told the court that other, as yet unidentified, people had to have been involved in the scam, which relied on "the gullibility of the hapless victims".

"The fraudsters used unregistered phones which were readily discarded and readily replaced. They were calling number after number after number and had to have telephone lists such as those held at call centres," he explained.

"They had to have addresses and other information such as ages as only the elderly were targeted."

Jailing Yeboah for four years and Mintah for five years, Judge Martin Joy described the scam as a "sophisticated fraud" which was "planned and systematic".

He added that Yeboah played a major role and that, while he accepted Mintah did not lead the same lavish lifestyle, his involvement as Yeboah's “lieutenant was "critical".

Yeboah's sentence was less than Mintah's as he was given more credit for pleading guilty at an earlier stage in the proceedings.