Harborough MP turns the tables on scammers who told his wife that they were prosecuting her for tax fraud

The wife of Harborough MP Neil O’Brien has been targeted by scammers telling her she was to be prosecuted for tax fraud.

The criminals told Neil’s wife Jemma she owed HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) over £1,700 – and she faced being arrested by police in the next “20 to 30 minutes” if she didn’t pay up.

But the fast-thinking Conservative MP rapidly turned the tables on the tricksters by recording the call to vividly highlight the tricks they get up to as their scam quickly started to unravel.

And now Neil is warning people across Harborough to be on their guard after a string of local victims have been conned by a whole range of scams over the last few months alone.

“It is absolutely shocking that this sort of thing is going on throughout our district and up and down the whole country day in day out.

“People need to be so careful as there are so many different phone scams going on at the moment.

“Never ever give your details to anyone or confirm a password or anything,” the outraged MP told the Harborough Mail today.

“Watch out especially for criminals claiming to be from banks or the HMRC or claim that they are calling about your pension or say that your computer needs repairing.

“Put the phone down on these shameless villains straight away – don’t give them anything.”

Neil has spoken out through the Harborough Mail after his wife Jemma got a call out of the blue on Thursday February 18 from “phone scammers claiming to be from the HMRC”.

“They rang her from the number 0203 868 9373.

“A man rang claiming to be ‘David Morgan’ from the ‘HMRC Crime Division’.

“He said my wife was about to be prosecuted for tax fraud - and owed the HMRC over £1,700,” said Neil.

The MP said the caller claimed they had previously tried to contact Jemma, a doctor and mum-of-two, and got her to give him her date of birth.

“He read out a long script which he described as an affidavit.

“He said she needed to say ‘right now’ that she would either pay or contest the decision - and that lawyers were waiting in the courtroom for her decision.

“He said she was not allowed to tell anyone else about this.

“At this point Jemma came to me and I started to record this call,” said Neil, who lives near Market Harborough.

“He continued to press her to pay and said he would fax the police and that she would be arrested.

“After a bit of further discussion he hung up and at the same moment a different lady rang us up from 0207 601 2452.

“She said she was ‘Nancy Brown’ from the ‘City of London Police Department’ at 37 Wood Street and she was following up the first call.

“This woman said she had received a fax from HMRC, that it was ‘very urgent’ and that police would be round to take Jemma into custody in ‘20 or 30 minutes’.

“She then pretended to be on the phone to someone else to arrange for Jemma to be actually arrested.

“She said ‘four people’ would come round to arrest her.

“She said ‘save your wife, you are not going to have your wife in bed tonight’.

“When I asked, ‘are you a police officer?’ she replied ‘I am a police officer’ and that her badge number was ‘751’.

“She then claimed ‘I work for Barbican police department’.

“She then hung up,” revealed Neil.

“It is totally incredible that these totally unscrupulous criminals are trying it on like this with people all over Harborough all the time.

“Just doing their best to pick people off, take them down and plunder their hard-earned money and life savings.

“Never ever feel rushed if they call you.

“Anyone who is legitimate won’t mind if you take steps to verify that they are who they claim.

“People shouldn’t feel under pressure as legitimate callers will never try to put you under pressure in the way that these outrageous scammers will,” said Neil.

“But above all else – never give them any information about you, your family or your bank accounts full stop.

“If in doubt – slam the phone straight down and refuse to talk to them point blank.

“If you can, note down the phone number that they are calling from and tell the police straight away.

“These wicked people have got to be stopped – and stopped now.”