Two men who exploited the dating app Grindr to target gay men across London have been jailed following a string of burglaries and fraud offences.
Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 22, and Mohammed Bilal Hotak, 21, were convicted of burglary, fraud, and theft at Isleworth Crown Court on 4 November. They were sentenced on 22 December, with Mohammadi receiving five years in prison and Hotak sentenced to three and a half years.
The men were members of a larger organised crime group responsible for 35 burglaries and 20 connected frauds between October 2024 and March 2025. A total of 22 victims were targeted in this time.
According to investigators, the pair used Grindr to make contact with victims. Once invited into their homes, they would manipulate them into unlocking their phones and revealing passwords. The stolen data was then used to transfer money, make purchases, and withdraw funds.
‘A devastating impact on victims’
Superintendent Owen Renowden, the Metropolitan Police’s hate crime lead, called the crimes “callous, calculated and pre-planned”.
“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,” he said.
Renowden added that the Met remains “fully committed to ensuring all communities in London feel safe”, emphasising the need to build trust within the LGBT+ community.
“Organised crime has a devastating impact on society and will not be tolerated,” he stated.
Jasmine O’Connor, CEO of anti-LGBT+ abuse charity Galop, told the BBC that the misuse of Grindr would likely shake the community’s sense of security.
“We know Grindr is widely used by many LGBT+ people, not only for dating, but also for community, connection, and mutual support – particularly for people who may feel otherwise isolated,” she said.
“Learning about the harmful and calculated manipulation of Grindr to target LGBT+ people is likely to have a real impact on our whole community’s sense of safety. More must be done to ensure minoritised victims of crime have meaningful access to safety and criminal justice.”
This isn’t the first time Grindr has been misused in such a way. Just last year, five men were jailed for using the LGBTQ+ app to locate and violently rob members of the gay community. The shortest sentence in that case was 12 years, while the longest reached 17 years and three months.
