Rahmat Khan Mohammadi and Bilal Hotak were jailed after duping unsuspecting men into thinking they were wanting to get hot and steamy — when they were looking to burgle homes
Two migrants from Afghanistan have been jailed after reportedly tricking men into letting them into their homes — only to burgle them right under their noses. They allegedly carried out their dirty deeds by duping the men on a hookup app targetting men who seek other men for intimacy.
Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 22, and Bilal Hotak, 21, were convicted of carrying out 35 different burglaries in properties around London. They were also found to have committed around 20 different scams, stealing phones and passports, as well as making off with debit and credit cards.
Now, the pair have been jailed for several years for their own parts in the scamming scheme, following a lengthy trial in court. Moreover, the grim details on how they fooled unsuspecting victims have been revealed.
According to the Daily Mail, Isleworth Crown Court heard how Mohammadi and Hotak had used Grindr, a dating app serving the LGBTQIA+ community, to meet men at their homes before ransacking their properties and making off with their loot. Speaking anonymously to the paper, one victim admitted that he had taken pity on the pair because they looked “shy”.
The 47-year-old man said that the pair reached out to him on Grindr, but immediately, their pictures did not match up, as one of the men “looked like a white guy in the profile picture”. The pair chatted for a while, before one of the perpetrators asked if a friend could come with; again, the pair used a different person’s picture to fool their victim.
The man, who works as a professional, explained: “When they arrived, it didn’t take more than half a second for me to realise they were not the same people. I was confused at why they had turned out to be different people because they weren’t fat or ugly or whatever.”
He immediately guessed that the two men were not white, but were in fact from Afghanistan or Pakistan, but had good levels of English. He added: “My analysis was they were either shy, inexperienced or embarrassed as some people can be discreet, especially from certain cultures; I gave them the benefit of the doubt.”
Prosecutors during the case revealed that the pair would wait for their victim to unlock their phone to play music and distract them by asking for some water. As the men would leave the room, the perps would then steal the phones and flee the house.
Police were able to help track the men down after they received a slew of different leads from various other victims that were affected. This includes phone tracking apps, and they were eventually hauled in for questioning and were later arrested and charged.
Mohammadi, of Weald Lane, Harrow, denied the alleged crimes but was convicted of 17 counts of burglary, 12 of fraud and one of theft. Hotak, of Richmond Road, Hackney, also denied the accusations but was convicted of 14 counts of burglary, nine of fraud and one of theft.
The pair were convicted in November for their crimes and were sentenced on December 22. Mohammadi was jailed for five years, whilst Hotak was put behind bars for three and a half years.
Superintendent Owen Renowden, heading the Met’s hate crime department, praised the victims for coming forward as it was down to them that the two criminals could be caught. “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,” he said.
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