Two men jailed for series of burglaries using dating app Grindr

Two men who carried out a series of burglaries across London after identifying their victims on the dating app Grindr have been jailed following a Met Police investigation.

Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 22 (28.10.02), of Weald Lane in Harrow and Mohammed Bilal Hotak, 21 (01.01.04), of Richmond Road in Hackney, both Afghan nationals, were found guilty of burglary, fraud and theft at Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday, 4 November.

Both men were sentenced at the same court today, Monday, 22 December, with Mohammadi handed a five-year prison term, while Hotak will serve three-and-a-half years behind bars.

Superintendent Owen Renowden, the Met’s hate crime lead who oversaw the investigation, said: 

“Mohammadi and Hotak carried out a series of callous, calculated, pre-planned crimes across London, targeting men and stealing high-value items and money.

“Their actions had a devastating impact on their victims. Nobody should be made to feel unsafe in their own homes and they will have to live with the trauma these men have caused them.

“I hope today’s outcome provides some comfort that these criminals have been taken off the streets, and this is down to the great strength they have shown throughout our investigation.

“I’d also like to thank the Met’s LGBT+ Advisory Group and the LGBT+ anti-abuse charity, GALOP, whose guidance and support ensured we were able to conduct our work with sensitivity and care.

“The Met is fully committed to ensuring all communities in London feel safe, as well as continuing to enhance the trust and confidence LGBT+ people place in us. Organised crime has a devastating impact on society and will not be tolerated.”

The investigation

The conviction of Mohammadi and Hotak is the result of an extensive, complex investigation led by detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command which began in March this year.

The pair were part of an organised crime group, who in total, carried out 35 burglaries and 20 related frauds between October 2024 and March this year, relating to 22 victims.

Last autumn, the Met began to receive reports of several phone thefts across the capital, with all the victims targeted in the same way.

Mohammadi and Hotak would identify their victims and initiate contact via the dating app Grindr, and after exchanging messages online, would arrange to meet them at their homes.

Once inside, the pair would use a range of distraction tactics to obtain mobile phone passwords before stealing their handsets and making a quick exit from the property, often using a getaway vehicle waiting nearby.

Mohammadi and Hotak would then access the victim’s personal data to make payments, withdraw money or transfer funds to other accounts. In some cases, they would steal other high value items such as wallets, passports and watches.

Initially, our Specialist Crime Team were alerted by officers across several London boroughs following a number of reported thefts in which Grindr was a common feature.

This led to them identifying 32 offences that had taken place over a two-week period and re-opening a number of historic thefts where all possible lines of enquiry had previously been explored.

Officers trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage, ANPR data to identify vehicles, thousands of phone records and text messages which not only enabled them to link Mohammadi and Hotak to each other, but also to their offending.

Detective Inspector Mark Gavin, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, added:

“We know that trust and confidence in the Met police is lower among the LGBT+ community than most groups, so ensuring victims felt heard, believed and taken seriously was a key focus for us throughout this investigation.

“We deployed specialist LGBT+ community liaison officers to review these crimes and worked closely with each victim to offer them support and advice daily, and this proved crucial in giving them the confidence to speak to us and provide information.

“This approach also provided the catalyst for harsher sentences for Hotak and Mohammadi, as we were able to present stronger evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service to escalate these offences from thefts to burglaries and frauds.

“And involving key community groups in tailored meetings where we could share investigative updates meant they felt confident we were progressing our enquiries and taking these crimes extremely seriously, while giving them the chance to ask questions and help shape our decision making."

Mohammadi was arrested on Thursday, 3 April and charged with one count of theft, 17 counts of burglary and 12 fraud offences on Saturday, 5 April.

Hotak was arrested on Thursday, 24 April and charged the following day on Friday, 25 April, with one count of theft, 14 counts of burglary and nine fraud offences.

If you’ve experienced abuse and violence and would like support, you can contact Galop, the UK’s LGBT+ anti-abuse charity, by telephone on 0800 999 5428, by email at help@galop.org.uk or by livechat at galop.org.uk

Notes to editors:

Video content and custody images are available here.

The video shows:

- Mohammadi enters a shop in Waltham Forest on 24 March 2025 and purchases items fraudulently using a mobile phone stolen from one of their victims.

- Officers seize mobile phones from a vehicle in Newham driven by Mohammadi before both he and Hotak are arrested.

- Mohammadi and Hotak arrested by Met officers in Newham.