Two brothers who scammed more than £2 million from people by using misleading websites have been jailed following a probe by a York-based team.

Damien and Dale Sartip Zadeh were directors of the companies behind the websites www.europeanhealthcard.org.uk and www.ehic-cards.org.uk which conned people into paying for European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs), which were available for free from the official NHS website, National Trading Standards (NTS) said.

The brothers were jailed at Leeds Crown Court on Monday after they were found guilty of fraudulent trading and laundering the proceeds between February 2013 and October 2019, the NTS confirmed.

Their parents – Diane Sartip Zadeh, 60, and Mahmud Sartip Zadeh, 62, both of Angram Drive, Sunderland – were found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for two years. Both were also required to attend 10 activity rehabilitation days.

According to NTS, the elaborate scam involved the brothers using a computer programme to push their misleading websites to the top of internet search results to deceive consumers into needlessly paying for their EHIC.

Customers’ details were simply cut-and-pasted into the NHS website form.

Damien Sartip Zadeh, 32, of Angram Drive, Sunderland, and Dale Sartip Zadeh, 35, of Polperro Close, Ryhope, Sunderland, were jailed for nine and a half years and eight years respectively, NTS confirmed.

Damien Sartip Zadeh was also convicted of engaging in aggressive commercial practices, after threatening consumers who complained to prevent them pursuing refunds.

Both brothers were disqualified from being directors for 10 years.

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The investigation, led by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, based in York, found a range of misleading features on the site – including fictional “check and send” and fast-track functions.

The investigators found that the colour and background of the site was similar to the NHS and Government Digital Service websites, which could mislead consumers into thinking they were using official channels.

The National Trading Standards case followed repeated warnings to the family to stop the offending.

The brothers received large sums of money from the fraud, including monies which were initially transferred to their parents’ accounts and subsequently diverted back to them.

The family now faces asset confiscation proceedings, the NTS said.

Ruth Andrews, Regional Investigations and eCrime Manager at City of York Council, said: “Despite multiple warning flags being raised with these defendants - including a previous arrest and warrants at their addresses and receiving written warnings about their future behaviour - they brazenly persisted with their fraud.

"They were determined to continue, believing they would never face justice. This case has shown we have equal measures of tenacity to protect consumers from such frauds and pursue cases to a conclusion.”

Councillor Greg White, Executive Member for Regulatory Services at North Yorkshire Council, said: "I commend the National Trading Standards eCrime team for bringing this long and difficult case against this family of scammers to its successful end. They've tried, but failed, to profit from scamming consumers in this dishonest and underhanded way.

"It’s especially important, that scams like this are regularly, detected, investigated, prosecuted, and dismantled, so that other criminals see we won’t tolerate them in our communities. I would also encourage anyone who has been a victim of an online scam like this to come forward and report it, as that report could stop it happening someone else.”