The mastermind behind an online fraud shop who conned victims out of more than £100 million has been jailed for more than 13 years.
Tejay Fletcher, 35, was the founder and leading administrator of the iSpoof.cc website which was brought down last year in the UK's biggest fraud sting.
The site helped criminals to disguise phone calls so they appeared to be from a trusted organisation, such as a bank, so they could empty their targets' accounts.
Southwark Crown Court was earlier told victims around the world were defrauded of at least £100 million, including a minimum of £43 million from people in the UK.
Last month Fletcher pleaded guilty to four charges, including making or supplying an article for use in fraud, encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, possession of criminal property and transferring criminal property.
Judge Sally Cahill today sentenced him to 13 years and four months behind bars.
She said victims had suffered damage to their businesses, personal financial problems, sleeplessness, depression, emotional stress and fallouts with family members.
She told Fletcher, who has 18 previous convictions for 36 offences, he "didn't care" about them, adding: "The late expression of remorse is regret for being caught rather than empathy for your victims."
The crook had made around £2 million from the website, spending some of the cash on a £230,000 Lamborghini, two Range Rovers worth £110,000 and an £11,000 Rolex.
Simon Baker KC, defending, his client did not see the "misery" being caused by the frauds at the time and was only "forced to confront the real consequences" when he saw the victims' impact statements.
He added: "His guilty plea reflects his genuine regret and remorse for his actions and his sincere wish to apologise to those who have suffered as a result of the frauds perpetrated against them as a result of the iSpoof website.
"It is extremely unfortunate that intellect was not channelled into gainful activities."
Last November it was reported about 70,000 people may have fallen victim to the biggest ever phone fraud in the UK when crooks rang them posing as bank staff and stole tens of millions of pounds.
Scotland Yard’s Cyber Crime Unit worked with the FBI, Europol and the Dutch police for a year-and-a-half to bring down the site.
Kate Anderson, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "This case is an excellent example of how we are prosecuting sophisticated criminals who attempt to hide behind anonymity online.
"Fraud is not a victimless crime and the cost to the many victims in this case has not just been financial, it has also had a huge emotional impact, causing extreme distress and devastation to those affected - many of whom had their life savings stolen from them.
"This was a complex and challenging case, and I would like to thank the Metropolitan Police and the many national and international law enforcement partners who worked with the CPS to secure the evidence for us to present.
"We were able to show how Fletcher was instrumental in the setting up of the website, which gave people the tools to defraud others.
"We will continue to work with investigators to prosecute the fraudsters who used the website and we will be pursuing confiscation proceedings against Fletcher to recover the money he made from his criminality.
"We hope this case will encourage all those who think they've been a victim of fraud to come forward and report it to the police. Every report can help prevent another person becoming a victim and enable us to prosecute offenders."
The Metropolitan Police said iSpoof was created in December 2020 and at its peak had 59,000 users, with up to 20 people per minute targeted at one point by callers using technology bought from the site.
Last year Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “This is the biggest fraud operation we have ever run in this country.”
