A 25-year-old London man has been jailed for two and a half years for his role in a "complex and calculated" SIM-swap fraud that stole almost £200,000 ($265,000) worth of cryptocurrency from multiple victims, the City of London Police announced on Thursday.

Ajay Shinjin, also known as AJ Marley Cruz and of Marsh Wall in Canary Wharf, was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court after pleading guilty on September 28 to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and to transferring criminal property. The force publicized the sentencing in a post on X on October 8, 2026:

"A SIM-swap fraudster who spent stolen crypto cash on gold teeth grills and luxury holidays has been jailed for two and a half years. Ajay Shinjin, 25, of Marsh Wall, Canary Wharf, helped to steal almost £200,000 worth of cryptocurrency. Read more ➡️ pic.twitter.com/mev7uF6rA0"

— City of London Police (@CityPolice) October 8, 2026

According to the force's official announcement, Shinjin received more than £44,000 of the stolen funds, which he spent on luxury holidays in Dubai, a high-end apartment in Canary Wharf and gold-plated teeth grills.

How the SIM-swap scheme worked

In a SIM-swap attack, criminals take control of a victim's phone number by having it transferred to a SIM card they control. They can then receive the one-time passcodes that banks and cryptocurrency platforms send by text message, giving them a route past account security checks. For cryptocurrency holders, the consequences can be especially difficult to unwind, because blockchain transfers are typically irreversible once funds leave an account.

In early November 2021, BT identified unauthorized activity on its systems through which customer phone numbers had been transferred to criminals' SIM cards. The telecoms provider traced the devices used to receive the hijacked numbers, and its data led police to several suspects, including Shinjin, who was linked to four of the devices.

One victim lost about £40,000 in cryptocurrency on November 2, 2021, of which Shinjin received about £27,000 into his personal crypto account, according to police. All of a second victim's roughly £17,000 ended up in his wallet. He also helped steal about £8,000 from a third victim's Coinbase account and about £130,000 from a fourth victim.

Shinjin was first arrested at his flat in 2021. He was re-arrested at Heathrow Airport in October 2023 while returning from Dubai after further evidence came to light, and gave no comment in police interviews. The sentencing came nearly five years after BT first detected the unauthorized activity in early November 2021, a span that included two arrests and a guilty plea in September — a timeline illustrating how long SIM-swap cases can take to move from detection to conviction.

"SIM-swap fraud is a sophisticated and increasingly concerning form of offending, and this case demonstrates the devastating consequences it can have for victims," said Detective Constable Simon Ardeman of the City of London Police.

Preventing SIM swaps

Unauthorized SIM swap cases recorded to the UK's National Fraud Database rose 402% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to figures published in August by fraud prevention service Cifas. Cifas said the rise reflects SIM swaps increasingly being used to intercept security codes and bypass account protections.

Mark Birchall, staff cybersecurity editor at Norton, recommends using an authentication app for two-factor authentication rather than text messages, which ties account access to a physical device rather than a phone number.

He also advises setting a separate PIN or passcode with your mobile carrier where possible, and enabling account takeover protection which some carriers offer to set strict verification rules for any changes to an account. SIM swapping is one reason a phone number "may not be the best way to verify your identity," Birchall wrote.