Eight men, among them a former X Factor star, have been jailed for a total of 34 years for defrauding elderly people, including one from Helston, out of approximately £1 million.

Elizabeth Curtis, 73, from Helston was conned out of £130,000 of her life savings by the gang from London and the South East who were convicted at the Old Bailey following a Met Police investigation into the ‘Bank of Terror’ conmen responsible from defrauding victims in Devon and Cornwall and across the country.

R&B artist and former X Factor contestant Nathan Fagan-Gayle, 29, received thousands of pounds after the conmen scammed the Cornish pensioner by posing as police officers.

After being contacted by a man posing as a police officer investigating ‘fraud’ at her bank, the 73-year-old was told to call 999 but it was in fact a gang member who had stayed on the line. He told her to transfer her savings, in separate transactions of between £12,500 and £20,000.

The singer, known as Starboy Nathan, then withdrew £15,000 before filtering £5,000 via his mother's and girlfriend's accounts to give the impression of 'fresh money'.

He was sentenced to 20 months for money laundering after going on a spending spree with the £20,000 he received from the scam;

Two other men identified as being involved in the crime in Devon and Cornwall were Anrul Islam, 24, from Essex, (pictured right) sentenced to 16 months for money laundering and fraud; and Warsame Sheik, 30, from Harrow, who pleaded guilty to money laundering and is due to be sentenced on 27 May.

Six other men, from London, who are also believed to have been involved in the crime series in Devon and Cornwall, have been sentenced: Makzhumi Abukar, 24, sentenced to seven years and four months for conspiracy to commit fraud.

Sakaria Aden, 22, sentenced to six-and-a-half years for conspiracy to commit fraud'

Fahim Islam, 21, sentenced to six years and three months for conspiracy to commit fraud.

Yasser Abukar, 24, sentenced to six years for conspiracy to commit fraud.

Achmed Ahmed, 23, sentenced to four years and two months for conspiracy to commit fraud.

Mohamed Dahir, 23, sentenced to 21 months for conspiracy to commit fraud.

Inspector John Shuttleworth, the lead officer for Operation Fardel, said: “We are delighted with the outcome of the recent court case.

“It’s a great relief to us in Devon and Cornwall, and more importantly to the victims here, to see some justice for the crimes that they have suffered.

“We identified these crimes some time ago and worked with the National Fraud Investigation Unit, at the Metropolitan Police, which took responsibility for compiling the evidence on behalf of our victims.

“We continue to investigate other offences of a similar nature that also involve frauds running into millions of pounds. Although our victims are very unlikely to recover any of their money, we hope to be able to ensure a number of individuals who are involved in these crimes are brought to justice in the months ahead.”

Devon and Cornwall Police have now reported a 90% reduction in the number of these fraud offences being reported with less than one crime occurring per month of this nature.

There were 11 offences reported in 2016 compared to 45 offences in 2015 and 192 in 2014. No-one has lost any money since November 2015.

Inspector Shuttleworth added: “I believe the main reason for the significant reduction in our area is the help we have had from the public in spreading the news on how these fraudsters operate.

“We have been delighted with the response from the public and media in getting information out to our elderly communities to advise them to be very careful about engaging with people on the telephone who are asking for banking information or personal details, particularly when they claim to be from an official body such as the bank or police.

“No-one from a professional corporation, financial institution or public service will ask members of the public to reveal private banking security information or ask for money to be transferred from their personal bank accounts. This is regardless of how convincing they may sound on the telephone or how much information they appear to hold about the person they are calling.

“Some victims have told us that the person, who was pretending to call from their bank, seemed to know their details already. I must re-iterate that fraudsters can be very convincing and persuasive. The best advice is to end the call and consult a friend or member of your family for more advice on the types of frauds that are being practised by fraudsters across the country.”

A number of the organised crime gang’s 140 victims were from Devon and Cornwall and were identified by Operation Fardel which has been investigating these offences for over 18 months.

The Operation Fardel team were established in Devon and Cornwall when the Force started to receive numerous calls from elderly victims in 2014. These victims have lost thousands of pounds to fraudsters who pretended to be calling from the bank fraud department or police fraud squad in the Metropolitan police.

More advice can be found on the Devon and Cornwall police website - https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/prevention-and-advice/your-money/