‘Cunning’ thief who stole £870,000 from Kensington’s five-star Royal Garden Hotel jailed

A “manipulative” fraudster who stole nearly £870,000 from a five-star central London hotel has been jailed for seven years and 10 months.

Zaheer Abbas, 40, opened a bogus business bank account to impersonate the Royal Garden in Kensington, gained access to its payment service and changed the hotel’s banking details to the fraudulent one he created.

Adding to the scam, he set up landline numbers complete with recorded greeting messages, mirroring real switchboards of the Royal Garden and his bank, to fool genuine suppliers.

Detectives said when payment departments contacted these numbers to verify the changes, they were tricked into talking to Abbas.

He also impersonated a solicitor to verify his identity on various false documents.

Once the bank account of the Royal Garden was changed, Abbas was able to divert approximately £867,000 in funds between May and June 2023.

Police were contacted when the hotel did not receive expected money as usual.

Abbas, from Milton Keynes, transferred money from his fake account to various destinations, as well as paying for two years’ rent on a property and a new Audi.

Around £657,404 has been recovered and returned to the Royal Garden.

At Isleworth Crown Court, Abbas pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud over a nine-month period between January and September 2023.

Detective Constable Daniel Jordan, of the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit - a specialist police unit funded by the banking industry said: “Abbas used manipulation and deceit to steal a huge amount of money from a business.

“In doing so, Abbas put the business and its employees in a very harmful position with no care for the impact of such a serious crime.

“Fortunately, we were able to identify him and put a stop to his criminal activity, after working closely with the banking and finance industry.

“This sentencing should alarm anyone who believes they can benefit financially from committing fraud, showing that they will be caught and brought to justice.”