Conman in jail after quick-thinking officers exposed his identity with ringing phone

A serial fraudster was outwitted by quick-thinking City West officers when he tried to lie about who he was.

The Aspley neighbourhood team were out in plain clothes looking for Arfan Choudry when they noticed him walking towards them.

When they stopped the 51-year-old in Wiverton Road, Forest Fields, he claimed his name was ‘Imran’ but said he’d forgotten his ID.

At that point, the officers found a phone number on the police system that was linked to Choudry and called it while standing next to him.

After being betrayed by the mobile ringing loudly in his pocket, the conman finally admitted what officers already knew and he was placed in handcuffs.

Choudry had put himself on the neighbourhood team’s radar after repeatedly knocking on random people’s front doors while posing as someone who needed help.

On seven separate occasions, the conman pretended to be a neighbour in trouble – having apparently broken his house key in the lock and being locked out as a result.

Adopting a new name each time – whether that be Tariq, Saj, Raj, or Imran – Choudry banked on each of his victims’ good nature before subsequently ripping them off.

The lie tended to follow the same format each time, with the scam artist asking for lifts and cash to get him back into his ‘home’ and pay for a medical prescription he needed.

Choudry repeated the ruse multiple times across Aspley, Basford, Wollaton, Sherwood and Bobbers Mill, with most of his offending happening between 15 September and 22 October.

He chose to do this, despite being jailed for 24 weeks last year for a string of similar frauds on homeowners in Nottingham, between October 2022 and January 2023.

After being spotted and arrested by plain-clothed City West officers this time around, he found himself back before Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 11 November.

Charged with seven counts of fraud by false representation, Choudry, of no fixed address, admitted what he’d done, and was jailed for one year.

PC Imtiaz Hasan, of Nottinghamshire Police’s City West neighbourhood policing team, said:

“Arfan Choudry is a serial liar who continuously preyed on the good nature of others in an attempt to rip them off.

“The fraudster showed up at each of his victims’ houses before feeding them a made-up tale of woe that made them feel sorry for him and want to help.

“After successfully managing to guilt-trip these well-meaning people into offering him a lift and to part with cash, he then left them while promising to pay them back.

“This never happened of course, while his claims to be one of their neighbours and even the name he gave them when he first knocked on their doors were all made up.

“Choudry even tried to repeat this lie to our officers when they caught up with him, before they cleverly decided to call his phone and make him confess who he actually was.

“We’re pleased to see he’s now been taken off the streets and put behind bars, where we hope he uses his time in prison to reevaluate how he’s living his life.”