South London fraudsters have lenient sentences increased

Career scammers Mark Leacock and Justin Reis were part of an organised phone scam that systematically targeted elderly and vulnerable people in Surrey between October 2024 and February 2025.

Their six victims were aged between 75 and 92, with losses totalling £7,525.29 and a further attempted fraud halted only when one victim’s daughter intervened.

Victim statements described lasting anxiety, heightened suspicion about callers and visitors, changes to daily routines and, in some cases, embarrassment and fear within their families.

One victim, who was recently widowed and had relied on her late husband to handle banking, said she felt “shaken up” and “almost abused”.

Leacock, 57, previously of Croydon, and Reis, 47, from Streatham, used withheld numbers to pose as bank fraud staff, instructing victims to “secure” their accounts and before sending couriers to collect bank cards, sometimes after obtaining PINs.

The stolen cards were then used for high-value purchases including electronic goods and household appliances.

Both were described by the Court of Appeal as seasoned fraudsters with previous, strikingly similar offences against elderly victims.

They previously conspired together in a near-identical 2012 bank-card fraud, again posing as bank staff to obtain cards and PINs.

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For the latest offending, Leacock was originally sentenced at Inner London Crown Court last November to 30 months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to defraud whilst Reis was given 2 years’ imprisonment, suspended for 2 years, with 25 rehabilitation activity days.

But on April 1 the Court of Appeal quashed both sentences and increased Leacock’s term to a total of 4 years and substituted a 3‑year immediate custodial sentence for Reis.

Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said the fraudsters deliberately targetted very vulnerable elderly victims.