Police impersonator took £50k from elderly people

A man who impersonated a police officer to take more than £50,000 from elderly people has been jailed.

Gavin Butters, 27, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court after being involved in courier frauds in eight different areas in the UK.

According to Thames Valley Police victims received phone calls from an unknown person impersonating a police officer or bank investigator who asked them to hand over cash, bank cards and jewellery.

Butters would then impersonate a police officer while visiting the addresses to collect the items.

Police said one victim was a women in her 70s from Flackwell Heath, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

On 7 January 2025 she had answered a call from an unknown number on her mobile phone from a man who pretended to be from Scotland Yard's Action Fraud.

In calls which lasted for more than six hours throughout the day, the victim was told her bank cards had been used fraudulently and were needed as evidence to arrest somebody in the local area.

She was told if she did not hand over the cards she would be arrested herself.

Butters went to the woman's address later that day and collected three bank cards, which he used to buy iPhones worth £5,896.

The force worked with Merseyside Police and Cheshire Constabulary in the investigation.

Det Con Claire Nangle, the officer in charge of the Thames Valley case, said: "Butters showed a complete disregard for his victims by pressuring them to co-operate in his fictional covert operation, taking advantage of their trusting nature.

"This sentence reflects the seriousness of his offending, aggravated by the fact that he systematically targeted vulnerable, elderly victims."

On 19 May Butters was sentenced after previously admitting to four counts of fraud by false representation at the same court.

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