Warning over serial liar's conman tricks when knocking on Nottingham doors

A prolific Nottingham conman told good Samaritans he was locked out of his house before cruelly taking advantage of their kindness. Arfan Choudry, 51, had knocked on random people’s front doors in several parts of Nottingham and posed as someone who needed help.

The fraudster pretended to be a neighbour who had locked himself out of his house in Aspley, Basford, Wollaton, Sherwood and Bobbers Mill. Adopting a new name each time – whether that be Tariq, Saj, Raj or Imran – Choudry banked on each of his victims’ good nature before subsequently ripping them off.

The scam artist asked for lifts and cash to get him back into his "home" and pay for a medical prescription he needed. He carried these crimes out between September 15 and October 22 - despite being jailed for 24 weeks last year for a string of similar frauds between October 2022 and January 2023.

He was stopped in Wiverton Road, Forest Fields, by plain-clothed police officers who had been sent to find him after his recent string of offences. He claimed his name was Imran and that he had forgotten his ID, but the officers found a phone number on the police system that was linked to Choudry and called it - with the ringing phone in his pocket disproving his lie.

Choudry, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud by false representation at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on November 11 and was jailed for a year. PC Imtiaz Hasan, of Nottinghamshire Police’s City West neighbourhood policing team, said: “Arfan Choudry is a serial liar who continuously preyed on the good nature of others in an attempt to rip them off.

“The fraudster showed up at each of his victims’ houses before feeding them a made-up tale of woe that made them feel sorry for him and want to help. After successfully managing to guilt-trip these well-meaning people into offering him a lift and to part with cash, he then left them while promising to pay them back.

“This never happened of course, while his claims to be one of their neighbours and even the name he gave them when he first knocked on their doors were all made up. Choudry even tried to repeat this lie to our officers when they caught up with him, before they cleverly decided to call his phone and make him confess who he actually was.

“We’re pleased to see he’s now been taken off the streets and put behind bars, where we hope he uses his time in prison to reevaluate how he’s living his life.”