‘Cunning’ thief who stole £870,000 from Kensington’s five-star Royal Garden Hotel jailed

A “manipulative” fraudster who stole nearly £870,000 from a five-star central London hotel has been jailed for seven years and 10 months.

Zaheer Abbas, 40, opened a bogus business bank account to impersonate the Royal Garden in Kensington, gained access to its payment service and changed the hotel’s banking details to the fraudulent one he created.