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Two burglars who used the Grindr dating app to trick victims into letting them into their homes have been jailed.
Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 23, and Mohammed Bilal Hotak, 27, would arrange to meet victims at their London properties, and persuade them to provide their phone passwords by asking to play music on YouTube.
The Afghan refugees then stole the devices and left before making online or contactless payments, as well as occasionally transferring funds to themselves.
Mohammadi targeted 11 victims in his five-month crime spree between 24 October 2024 and 24 March 2025.
Hotak offended multiple times between 24 October 2024 and 23 December 2024.
Mohammadi was jailed for five years and Hotak for three and a half years at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday.
Sentencing both men, Judge Adenike Balogun said: “I have taken note of the psychological trauma as well as the inconvenience caused to the victims, and the distress that all of them have expressed at allowing you into their homes – into their private space – only to be violated.”
Prosecutor David Patience had alleged that the men were targeted because of their sexuality and the offences could in effect have been seen as hate crimes.
The judge said: “I’ve considered that matter very carefully and it seems to me that the presumed sexual orientation of the victims presented an opportunity for you to commit the crime, and in that respect I do find that the victims… were targeted because of their perceived vulnerability.”
However, she said they were not picked because the two men held “hostility” towards the victims’ sexuality.
Rather, it was because they knew that Grindr – an app used for gay introductions – was “an opportunity to gain easy access into the homes of the victims”.
She added: “I suspect you were – and I put no higher than that – banking on the victims not reporting the crime.”
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