A blackmail gang attempted to extort tens of thousands of pounds from two married businessmen after having sex with them, a court heard.
Kamar Ilyas, 34, slept with the two victims, who felt compelled to keep their sexuality a secret from their communities, before the plot developed into aggressive threats. The scheme involved threatening to tell the wives of the victims and share explicit footage of the sexual encounters on social media.
Both victims were married to women but directly contacted Ilyas who was using false names both on male escort websites and the dating app Grindr. They were persuaded to meet up but soon found themselves victims of blackmail plots in which they were ordered to pay up or face consequences.
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They made false accusations of paedophilia against both men. One victim was 'effectively held hostage' in a bedroom while being recorded before being driven round in a car for about three hours while threats were made that they would visit his home and tell his wife and children, LancsLive has reported.
Ilyas was assisted by Aman Khan, 33, in blackmailing one victim, a man from Manchester, and by both Khan and Khalil Chaudry, 29, in a separate plot involving a second victim, a man from Burnley. The trio went before Preston Crown Court after admitting offences relating to the plots at earlier hearings.
Prosecuting, Sarah Haque said the victim in the Manchester case was a married father and comes from 'an ethnic community where homosexuality is not permitted'. She said he worked until the early hours of the morning and had used male escort websites named ‘Sleepy Boy’ and ‘Manchester Lads’ to arrange secret liaisons.
In October 2020, he arranged to meet with Ilyas who was on one of the websites under the name of Daniele Khan. They met at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester Piccadilly in a room which had been booked by Khan and would be linked to his home address by the police probe that followed.
Ms Haque said the pair chatted for a while before having sex, for which the victim paid £120 in cash. A week later, Ilyas, who was still using the fake name, contacted the victim asking to meet up again. He made persistent requests to meet up which gave the victim 'a bad feeling' after another experience in which an escort tried to ask him for money.
Ilyas reassured him that he was only contacting him 'because he was such a nice client and he wanted to meet again'. He bought gifts of flowers and chocolates as part of his efforts to convince him to meet up again.
The pair eventually arranged to meet at a hotel again, with Ilyas arriving first. This enabled him to set up a hidden camera in the room and for them to be photographed arriving together by Khan, who was parked nearby.
They again had sex after talking for a while, with Ilyas encouraging him to confide his fears about why he was nervous about meeting up. They left at around 1.15am at which point the victim went back to work.
Ms Haque said: “The victim sent a message saying ‘thank you and safe travels’, a reference referred to Ilyas saying he was travelling to Oxford and saying he was a nurse who worked there.”
One hour later, a response came through saying: "No. Thank you, you dirty old married man. You’re gonna regret this.” That was followed with a video of the two of them in bed and a warning that the entire encounter had been recorded and would be posted on social media and sent to his wife, whose number had been taken from the victim’s phone.
The victim was ordered to pay £25,000 by midnight that day but he said it wasn’t possible. He was then bombarded with calls and messages from various numbers. Calls were also made to his wife and his business. More videos were also sent to him as proof that more of the encounter had been secretly recorded.
Khan even sent a photo of the victim’s car outside his workplace. At this point, not knowing how dangerous the men were, he called 999 and the police arrived. They chased the silver Volkswagen Golf being driven by Khan but he got away.
While the police were taking the victim’s statement, Ilyas called him and in a conversation partly recorded by officers, claimed he had been pressured into being involved in the plot and was scared himself. He agreed to attend a police station and give his own statement but never did.
However, the hotel booking linked back to Khan and police visited his home. When interviewed, he admitted booking the room but claimed to have no knowledge of a blackmail plot. A phone number mentioned by Khan led police to Ilyas who initially claimed another escort must have sent the footage but later admitted his role and claimed he had done so because he was under pressure from drug dealers.
Judge Simon Medland QC described the Burnley case as 'a remarkably similar honeytrap blackmail case where a respectable married man was identified and exploited'. In that case, the victim again came from a community where homosexuality was not accepted and used the app Grindr to meet men, the court was told.
This time, Ilyas was using a different false name and convinced the man to meet him. He arranged for the married man to come to Khan’s house where they chatted for a while and the victim confided about his life, family and career before they moved to the bedroom.
While in bed, a loud bang hit the door and Chaudhry and Khan stormed in holding phones as if they were filming proceedings, which Khan was doing. Ms Haque said: "Chaudhry pulled the covers off the bed. Ilyas pretended to be shocked, apologising to his uncles as he pretended they were.
"Khan told the victim that Ilyas was only 15-year-old and asked him what he was doing. Although he looked younger, it was quite clear he could not pass for a 15-year-old child. The victim tried to get up but he was pushed back to the bed. He asked Chaudhry to be reasonable and even tried to protect Ilyas.”
The victim was not allowed to move or dress and later said he felt 'scared to death but continued to try to be reasonable with the men. Khan picked up the victim’s driving licence from his wallet which was filmed to use as a reveal and evidence on the video. They made threats to call police over the false paedophilia claims and Chaudhry did at one stage call 999 but it was treated as a hoax call as it was disconnected.
The men allowed the victim to get dressed before taking him to a car in which they drove around for three hours. At one stage, they threatened to visit the victim’s house and entered his postcode into the satnav and drove near to the property only to turn around and head back towards Blackburn.
He eventually convinced them to stop and allow him to urinate and only upon their return to the car did they say what they wanted from him, demanding £40,000 be paid in a matter of days. A similar pattern of threats followed, during which the victim was 'petrified for himself and the consequences and also his family given the aggression of the man, how long they kept him and the fact they clearly knew where he lived'.
He attempted to convince the men to stop pursuing him and sought advice from a solicitor as well as making an anonymous call to the police. However, he felt unable to give his name and continued to try and deal with it himself. In common with the previous case, matters came to a head when a photograph was sent of the outside his home and the victim became scared of what may happen. He rushed home from work and told his wife what was going on and she called the police.
In the meantime, Khan and Ilyas had been arrested in connection with the Manchester blackmail and were remanded in custody. They pleaded guilty at early stages but Chaudhry protested his innocence until day one of his trial when video evidence was shown in court.
Defending Ilyas, Mohammed Qazi said his best mitigation was his early plea for which he asked for credit of one-third off the sentence. He said Ilyas, a married dad-of-one, was pressured into being involved and had not used any violence or actually received any money. Ilyas, he said, has spent the last year in custody and struggled with ill health and was now on psychiatric medication as a result.
Defending Khan, Douglas Stewart admitted it was difficult to mitigate against such a serious crime but noted a lack of previous convictions and a history of being hard working prior to the incident. Mr Stewart said Khan had volunteered for the NHS around similar times to the offences and argued his role was limited to the equivalent of a getaway driver.
Barry Grennan, defending Chaudhry, observed that his client was only involved in one of the offences and asked for some credit for the eventual plea. He said Chaudhry is married and has a 20-month-old daughter and was supported by his wife and her family in court. Mr Stewart said he was a hard working man who worked 12-14 hours a day, would struggle in jail and was remorseful enough that he is unlikely to ever offend again.
Sentencing, Judge Medland described the men as cruel criminals who had exploited their victims and their difficulties in being open about their sexuality. Ilyas, of Lomeshaye Road, Nelson, was jailed for six years and three months; Khan, of Milton Street, Nelson was handed a six year sentence; and Chaudhry, of Basnett Street, Burnley was given five years and eight months.
