LONDON – Blessing Mudzinge (41), a Zimbabwean national based in the United Kingdom, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison after he reportedly impersonated clients to defraud Lloyds and Barclays bank of over £490,000.
Mudzinge (41), a resident of Skylark in Ipswich, would make phone calls to banks and impersonate legitimate customers in order to steal customer information to access their accounts.
He would then transfer money to his own mule accounts.
Mudzinge, who was arrested following an investigation and arrest by a specialist banking industry-sponsored police unit, the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday.
Although all his victims were fully compensated, Mudzinge will also face a confiscation hearing aimed at recovering illicit funds in February as well as an application for a Serious Crime Prevention Order designed to prevent future criminal activity.
During his sentencing, Judge Martyn Levett said that Mudzinge had been the leader of a group that was committed to defrauding unsuspecting customers.
“To conceal proceeds, you arranged for them to be laundered through mule accounts you persuaded others to allow you to use and through those accounts you either withdrew cash or wanted accounts linked to cryptocurrency accounts for quick and easy dissipation.”
Det Ch Insp Paul Curtis, of the DCPCU said he hoped the sentencing acted “as a clear message” to fraudsters.
“Mudzinge used exploitation and deceit to steal from thousands of people of their hard-earned cash,” Det Ch Insp Curtis said.
“Thanks to the work of DCPCU and the banks, Mudzinge’s criminal antics were stopped and the victims were reunited with their money.”
