A fake doctor, who kept ‘props’ at home and in his car to appear as a medical professional, has been jailed for eight and a half years after secretly filming himself having sex with women.
Farhan Mirza, 38, from Abertillery, South Wales, used his fake profession as a way of impressing women who he would then sleep with and video to blackmail.
All of his victims were Muslim and were targeted, according to Mirza’s trial, because of the shame which would have been brought on the women’s families should the film be made public.
In one case, Mirza also threatened to send the video to a woman’s family in Pakistan, where she feared they could be targeted by extremist religious groups.
This week he was convicted at Cardiff Crown Court on charges of sexual assault, blackmail, voyeurism, theft and fraud against three victims.
His actions were described by Judge Tom Crowther as ‘pure misogyny’.
Speaking to the court, prosecutor Timothy Evans said victims were left facing ‘humiliation’ after meeting Mirza.
“It is the prosecution’s case that Mr Mirza is a particular kind of sexual predator and he chooses his victims carefully,” he said.
“Because of their religious and ethnic backgrounds, he targeted them because of the terror, embarrassment and humiliation that each of these ladies would have felt in their minds by what this defendant did to them.”
In all the cases, Mirza met the women via the dating website, Shaadi, where he used a fake profile to entrap women looking for long term relationships.
In an attempt to impress the women, he would keep a stethoscope in his car and hung surgical scrubs in the wardrobe of his home.
He told another woman that he was an IT manager and came from a successful family.
In truth, Mirza was an IT worker and taxi driver who lived with his mother.
His shocking crimes only came to light when one woman, who he was in a ‘relationship’ with, found intimate images in his home of her and other women. She also discovered £70,000 in cash – money Mirza had reportedly gathered through blackmail.
PC Pat Maguire, the officer in charge of the investigation for Gwent Police, praised the victims for helping to bring Mirza to justice.
“I would like to thank the victims for their courage to come forward and report these offences to the police,” he said.
“They have shown great bravery and dignity throughout.”
