Former fake Islamist extremist Hassan Butt arrested on suspicion of £1m eBay scam
Hassan Butt on bail following police raid in Manchester in September
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A man who claimed to be an al Qaeda insider before saying he made it all up has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a £1m eBay scam.
Hassan Butt is accused of conning thousands of people on the online auction website who purchased iPhones, iPads and games consoles from him which never turned up.
He was arrested in Manchester by counter terrorism officers from Scotland Yard in September last year in relation to a company called Mi Genie, which sold electronic goods on eBay in the run up to Christmas 2014, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Hundreds of customers reportedly contacted eBay to complain that they had paid but never received their goods and could not get in touch with the company.
The website then reported Mi Genie to the police.
Butt’s business partner was also arrested in the raid in September and both have been bailed to a date in March.
The 35-year-old former spokesman for extremist group al-Muhajiroun - linked to notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary - claimed to have sent dozens of British people to terrorist training camps overseas, including Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the 7/7 attacks on London in 2005.
Following the attacks, Butt claimed he had seen the error of his ways and became a vocal anti-extremism campaigner - evening being invited to meet then-security minister Tom McNulty to discuss ways to combat terrorism.
But his story unravelled in 2009 when he was forced to admit in court that he had told journalists stories “the media wanted to hear”.
While giving evidence at the trial of another man accused of terrorism offences he said he was “a professional liar”.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “Two men arrested on Wednesday 23 September by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), supported by colleagues from Greater Manchester Police, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud appeared on police bail on the 18 November and were further arrested on fraud offences.
“They have both since been released on police bail to a date in March pending further enquiries.”