A 25-year-old London man has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for his role in a SIM-swap fraud scheme that stole roughly £200,000 in cryptocurrency from four victims in November 2021.

City of London Police said Ajay Shinjin, also known as AJ Marley Cruz, received more than £44,000 from the operation. Investigators said he later spent the proceeds on trips to Dubai, an expensive apartment and gold-plated dental grills.

How the scheme worked

The fraud began in early November 2021 after BT detected unauthorized activity. According to the police account, criminals transferred customers’ phone numbers onto SIM cards under their control, allowing them to intercept texted one-time passcodes.

With access to those codes, the group was able to get into victims’ bank accounts or crypto wallets. Police described the activity as a SIM-swap fraud, a tactic that uses control of a phone number to bypass account security measures tied to SMS verification.

Losses across four victims

Victims reported four thefts during the first week of November 2021. The first case, on November 2, involved about £40,000 in stolen cryptocurrency, with roughly £27,000 of that amount traced to Shinjin’s crypto account.

A second victim lost around £17,000 between November 5 and 7, and police said all of those funds reached Shinjin’s wallet. Those two incidents made up the more than £44,000 in proceeds that investigators linked directly to him.

In the other two cases, police said Shinjin helped carry out the thefts even though the money did not go to his wallets. Around £8,000 was taken from a third victim’s Coinbase account on November 3, while a fourth victim lost about £130,000 on November 6 and 7.

Investigation and charges

Data provided by BT linked devices used in the attacks to Shinjin, according to investigators. Police said he was connected to four devices involved in the fraud.

He was arrested at Heathrow Airport in October 2023 while returning from Dubai. Prosecutors later charged him with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and transferring criminal property.

Guilty plea and sentencing

Shinjin pleaded guilty in late September 2026. The court then sentenced him to a two-and-a-half-year prison term for his involvement in the scheme.

Detective Constable Simon Ardeman of the City of London Police said the fraud was complex and calculated and caused significant financial harm to the victims. He added that the conviction should show that people who use technology to commit fraud can still be identified and brought before the courts.

What comes next

The confirmed outcome so far is Shinjin’s custodial sentence following his guilty plea. The case also outlines a timeline stretching from the November 2021 thefts to his arrest in October 2023 and sentencing in 2026, underscoring the time such digital fraud investigations can take.

Police have publicly detailed the amounts stolen, the wallets that received part of the proceeds and the charges brought in court. No further steps beyond the sentence were stated in the source account.

Source: cryptopotato.com