What happened
The Lancashire Telegraph reported on 10 November 2026 that Abdullah Muhammad, 48, of Blackburn, was jailed at Preston Crown Court after being convicted of burglary and admitting one count of fraud by false representation. The court heard that after Burnley Council began seeking a compulsory purchase order on an empty house on Whittaker Close, Burnley, Muhammad contacted council officers using a false name, claimed to be the owner's son and said the owner had died; the council notice at the house was replaced with a note claiming it was private property, and most of the owner's belongings were removed. The owner, who is alive, attended the sentencing. Muhammad was also convicted of an unrelated burglary at a house in Old Langho while its owners were abroad, in which he changed the locks and removed items. In court he described himself as a contractor trading as AJ Property Management and said he believed the properties had been abandoned; the judge described the Old Langho burglary as "a heartless pillaging" of the owners' property.
How the scam works
The Lancashire Telegraph reported that after Burnley Council began seeking a compulsory purchase order on an empty house on Whittaker Close, Burnley, Muhammad contacted council officers using a false name, claimed to be the owner's son and said the owner had died. The council notice at the house was replaced with a note claiming it was private property, and most of the owner's belongings were removed. The owner, who is alive, attended the sentencing. Muhammad was also convicted of an unrelated burglary at a house in Old Langho while its owners were abroad, in which he changed the locks and removed items. In court he described himself as a contractor trading as AJ Property Management and said he believed the properties had been abandoned; the judge described the Old Langho burglary as "a heartless pillaging" of the owners' property.
He was jailed at Preston Crown Court after being convicted of burglary and admitting one count of fraud by false representation. Councils and residents should independently verify anyone who claims to represent the owner of an empty or apparently abandoned property.
Source
The Lancashire Telegraph, 10 November 2026: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/26711982.blackburn-fraudster-jailed-posing-homeowners-son/
https://x.com/BlackburnLife/status/2120025066347900979
