Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal Jailed For Three Years & Eight Months For Operating UK's First Seized SMS Blaster Device

A man operating the first known rogue mobile antenna seized by UK law enforcement has been sentenced to three years and eight months' imprisonment following a complex investigation into mass SMS blaster fraud.

Mohammed Faiyaz Iqbal, 43, of Maple Crescent, Preston, Lancashire, was sentenced on August 28 2026 after pleading guilty at his first hearing on March 9 2026 to five criminal charges. The presiding judge determined a starting point of five years and six months, reduced by one third to reflect the guilty plea.

The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit arrested Iqbal on May 24 2024 while he sat in a van at the Trafford Shopping Centre car park. Police tracked the vehicle to the location after identifying it in the vicinity of a large volume of fraudulent text messages being broadcast to the public.

A search of the vehicle revealed multiple mobile phones in the front cabin and an SMS blaster system concealed within purpose-built wooden compartments in the rear. The equipment included power sources, Wi-Fi components, and aerials installed into the roof of the van, and was active at the time of the arrest.

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Investigators established that the equipment functioned as a rogue mobile antenna, bypassing telecommunications network security to transmit malicious text messages directly to nearby devices. The seizure marked the first time UK law enforcement encountered an operational SMS blaster.

The transmissions impersonated legitimate organisations, including Royal Mail, using smishing tactics to trick recipients into surrendering personal and financial data. Forensic examination of Iqbal's mobile devices uncovered 7,859 compromised payment card details. Subsequent searches of his home address recovered additional compromised banking material and three counterfeit UK driving licences used to establish fraudulent bank accounts for money laundering.

Iqbal was convicted of one count of fraud by false representation, one count of possession of articles for use in fraud, one count of acquiring and possessing criminal property, one count of possession of false identity documents, and one count of unauthorised use of wireless telegraphy apparatus.

The prosecution was led by the DCPCU in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Centre, Ofcom, and major telecommunications operators.

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