Lidl worker avoids jail after scamming pensioner out of £316,000

The 38-year-old denied any involvement and said that he was working in the supermarket when the deliveries were made.

Sajid was found guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to a charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act of taking part with others in having possession of “criminal property” described as a bar of “gold bullion” weighing over one kilo on June 10 2020.

The dad-of-four initially faced seven charges but two were dropped mid-trial, and for the others - he was found not proven.

He was further convicted of allowing his previous home in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire, “to be used for the delivery” of the gold.

Sajid has been placed on a community payback order which is an “alternative to custody”. He was tagged for 10 months which means he must be indoors between 10am and 10pm.

“If there are any problems and you do not comply then I will send you to prison,” the sheriff said.

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The pensioner said that she had been called by a scammer who claimed to be from the Financial Conduct Authority.

The caller told the 84-year-old, who had been caring for her husband at the time, that she had made a fraudulent purchase on Amazon. The OAP had believed this person on the other end of the phone to be “genuine”.

She was then told to move all of her investments into another account before pressuring her to buy £316,272 worth of gold - seven bars of bullion between May and July 2020.

The pensioner had been told to buy the gold from a woman in the Isle of Man to apparently help with the fraud cause. She said: “After it was successful, I was asked to buy another three. When that had gone through I was asked to buy three more.”

However, the bars of gold instead turned up at Sajid’s flat in Glasgow, rather than the pensioner’s home.

After Sajid was charged, he fumed: “I have not f***ing received anything, I am not f***ing like this.

“Tell her f***ing family to look after her. I have not robbed an old woman,” he said, denying his involvement and saying that he "could not live with himself" if he had scammed the pensioner.

She told the court that she could not believe she had fallen for the scam, and felt “stupid and humiliated”.

Frank McAuley, defending, said that his client was not the “architect” for the scheme.

He added: “He doesn't necessarily need to know what is in the parcels - all that was required is that he needed an understanding that there was criminal property.

“My words to the jury were that there was more than one victim. He was taken advantage of by others for their own personal gain.

“My client didn't gain anything personally from this and there is no evidence that he did as he lives a modest, humble life looking after his children.”