A PHONE scam - which netted fraudsters more than £1m after targeting elderly victims in Teignbridge and the rest of the south west – may have had links to Isis terrorists, it has been claimed.

Eight men have been jailed for their part in the regional rip-off which involved tricksters posing as police officers probing bank frauds.

They managed to persuade 18 victims, with an average age of 83, to transfer their lifesavings on the pretext the money would be kept safe from the non-existent gangsters they were allegedly investigating.

Metropolitan Police said some 140 frauds and attempted frauds were executed across southern England, with many more going unreported by victims embarrassed by their gullibility.

More than 5,600 calls were made by the gang to nearly 4,000 different numbers between May 2014 and May 2015, including ones in south Devon.

Police in Teignbridge regularly issued warnings through the Press about the activities of the fraudsters who are understood to have tried their luck on residents in the Newton Abbot area and beyond. None of those caught out by the gang were from the Teignbridge area.

Police have confirmed some of the illicit proceeds harvested by the gang funded travel arrangements for Brits to Syria, prompting suspicions of direct connections with the so-called Islamic state.

Prison sentences imposed on the eight varied from seven years to 16 months with offences ranging from conspiracy to commit fraud to money laundering.

The gang from London and the South East were convicted at the Old Bailey following a Met Police investigation into the ‘Bank of Terror’ conmen responsible for defrauding victims in Devon and Cornwall and across the country.

A number of the organised crime gang’s 140 victims were from Devon and Cornwall and were identified by the two county force’s Operation Fardel which investigated offences over 18 months.

The Fardel team was established in Devon and Cornwall when the force started to receive numerous calls from elderly victims in 2014.

They lost thousands of pounds to fraudsters who pretended to be calling from the bank fraud department or police fraud squad in the Metropolitan police.

Three individuals identified as being involved in crime in Devon and Cornwall were:

Nathan Fagan-Gayle, 29, from London, who was sentenced to 20 months for money laundering after going on a spending spree with the £20,000 he received from the scam.

Anrul Islam, 24, from Essex, sentenced to 16 months for money laundering and fraud.

Warsame Sheik, 30, from Harrow, who pleaded guilty to money laundering and is due to be sentenced on May 27.

Six other men, from London, who are also believed to have been involved in the crime series in Devon and Cornwall, have been sentenced. They were: 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; and Mohamed Dahir, 23, sentenced to 21 months for conspiracy to commit fraud.

Insp 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 per cent reduction in the number of such fraud offences being reported with less than one crime occurring per month.

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.