A pair of Afghan migrants have been convicted for a series of burglaries after they used gay dating app Grindr to target victims. Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 22, and Bilal Hotak, 21, carried out 35 burglaries and 20 related scams, using the dating app to find lonely men, Isleworth Crown Court heard.
The pair messaged their victims and arranged to meet them at their homes before carrying out their carefully planned thefts. They seized a number of phones, withdrew money from bank accounts and stole wallets, passports and watches.
David Patience, prosecuting, told jurors the men would arrange to meet their victims in their homes before getting them to unlock their phones to play music before distracting them by asking for a glass of water.
“They would then steal the unlocked phones and rapidly leave the addresses,” Mr Patience added.
He said: “In summary these two men in using the Grindr app to target a large number of victims without any concern for the impact it would have, both in economic and sentimental terms. They went into their addresses, stole their phones and in various ways attempted to fraudently obtain money from their bank accounts using those phones.”
After stealing the phones, the two men “attempted to use them to make online or contactless payments in large sums, sometimes being successful, sometimes not”.
On one occasion, they attempted to take out money in an east London casino called Merkur Slots in Barking, jurors heard.
They also applied for bank overdrafts using their victims’ names.
Officers trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage, ANPR data, thousands of phone records and text messages, which not only enabled them to link Mohammadi and Hotak to each other, but also to their offending.
Mohammadi, of Weald Lane, Harrow, denied but was convicted of 17 counts of burglary, 12 of fraud and one of theft.
Hotak, of Richmond Road, Hackney, denied but was convicted of 14 counts of burglary, nine of fraud and one of theft.
Superintendent Owen Renowden, the Met’s hate crime lead, said: “Mohammadi and Hotak carried out a series of callous, calculated, pre-planned offences across London, targeting unsuspecting men and resulting in high-value items and money being stolen, and I welcome today’s outcome at court.
“I’d like to praise the victims who have shown great strength throughout our investigation, as well the Met’s LGBT+ Advisory Group and the LGBT+ anti-abuse charity, GALOP, which enabled us to ensure we conducted our work with sensitivity and care.
“The Met is fully committed to ensuring all communities in London feel safe, as well as continuing to enhance the trust and confidence LGBT+ people place in us.
“Organised crime has a devastating impact on society and will simply not be tolerated.”
The pair will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.
