- Anouar Sabbar had sex with his victims and then demanded payment, saying he was an escort.
- He threatened to out a victim to his girlfriend if he didn't pay, and threatened another with violence.
- Sabbar was sentenced to 5 years in jail on Thursday.
A 28-year-old British man has been jailed for five years for blackmailing and robbing nine men he met on the LGBTQ hook-up app Grindr, police said.
Anouar Sabbar, from south London, England, scammed his victims by arranging to have consensual sex with them and telling them that he was an escort afterward, London's Metropolitan Police said.
Sabbar would edit his Grindr profile after the hook-up, police said, updating it to include reference to a £180-an-hour ($243-an-hour) fee for escorting services.
He then demanded the money, according to police, and threatened one of the victims with violence if he refused to pay. According to BBC News, Sabbar told the man: "They are coming. I didn't want to do this to you, but it looks like we will have to break your face."
The 28-year-old threatened to out another victim to his girlfriend with screenshots of their conversation if he didn't pay, police said.
Once he got the money, Sabbar blocked the victim's profiles on the app to make it harder for him to be traced. Police said that he regularly changed SIM cards, phone numbers, and hairstyle to make him harder to identify.
In total, the Metropolitan Police said that Sabbar stole £2,360 ($3,199) from nine men between April 2019 and June 2021. He also stole jewelry from his victims, whose ages varied from 25 to 57-years-old.
Sabbar was arrested with his girlfriend in a hotel in July 2021. He pleaded guilty to robbery, theft, five counts of blackmail, and five counts of fraud on November 8, 2021.
He was sentenced to five years in jail on Thursday.
Detective Inspector Arif Sharif of the Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "The victims, in this case, have been incredibly brave in coming forward and reporting the offenses Sabbar committed against them.
"Sabbar is a nasty and spineless individual who used Grindr to target victims and used their vulnerabilities against them."
Detectives are appealing to other people who may have been exploited by him to come forward.