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 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.”
Frequently using a Grindr profile with no photo, they would send one of someone else if an image was requested by a potential victim.
For several meet-ups Mohammadi would ask to bring a friend which would be Hotak.
Once inside, they would ask the victim to turn on music, usually on YouTube because the phone could not be locked while a video was playing.
Distraction tactics to encourage the victim to leave the room included taking a shower before sex, making a drink and showing one of them where the toilet was.
John Kearney, defending Hotak, told the court that the men chose Grindr because “there is no comeback”.
He said: “The application itself has enabled completely anonymous people to be invited as complete strangers into the homes of the victims”.
One victim spoke about the “severe psychological trauma” of being targeted, and the impact of losing photos of deceased family members stored on his phone.
He said: “The suspects used Grindr, a gay dating app, as a hunting ground.”
Another victim described being led into “a dark wet park late at night,” and encouraged to undress before his phone was taken from him.
He called the theft “invasive and degrading,” and says he remains afraid to date people he has met online.
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A jury found Mohammadi, of Weald Lane in Harrow, north-west London, guilty of 10 counts of burgling a dwelling, nine of fraud by false representation and one of theft.
Hotak, of Richmond Road in Hackney, east London, was convicted of five counts of burgling a dwelling, five of fraud by false representation and one of theft.
Mohammadi was acquitted of a further 10 charges and Hotak of 13.
Superintendent Owen Renowden, the Metropolitan Police’s hate crime lead, called their crimes “callous, calculated, pre-planned”.
“Their actions had a devastating impact on their victims,” he said. “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.”
