A crime family conned 42 pensioners out of £1.3m then splashed the cash on posh cars, luxury watches and trips to Dubai.

The Mohammed family, described as being "ferociously greedy", cold-called victims by posing as fraud advisers from VISA or high street banks and said they had been targeted in a suspected scam.

Led by Atif Mohammed, 25, the family, of Crosshill, Glasgow, then invited their targets to hang up and redial their own bank's fraud team themselves to gain their trust.

The gang then stayed on the line, intercepted the return call and either put on a fake voice or handed the phone to another family member to pose as a legitimate bank official.

At least 42 elderly and vulnerable people from across the UK were encouraged to transfer their savings - almost £129,000 in one case - into another bank account. They also conned one victim out of £84,000 in life savings on April Fool's Day 2014

The fraudsters spent the money "like water" on flash cars including a yellow Lamborghini Gallardo, a white Land Rover, a Ferrari and a Mercedes, a court heard.

It also funded designer bags, gold, expensive watches, high-stakes gambling ventures and trips abroad, including repeat visits to Dubai where they bought a house.

The Mohammeds called thousands of people using dozens of phones over 13 months as part of the "vishing" - voice phishing - scam.

Most of the victims will never get their money back because banks view such incidents, where people willingly transfer money, as not the bank's fault.

Seven members of the crime family were jailed for almost a quarter of a century for the crimes, committed between December 2013 and January 2015.

Sentencing them at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Barry Cotter QC said: "You are all guilty of involvement in a large-scale fraud to a greater or lesser degree.

"It involved persuading people by telephone to transfer large sums of money to bank accounts that were operated by yourselves. Those who fell for it tended to be the more unworldly and naive.

"Whilst they were not specifically targeted as vulnerable, it is obvious that it was people who did not have a suspicion that many people would have who were victims."

He added that the family was "rife with criminality" and "united by ferocious greed", adding: "The way in which the money was spent will make it even harder for victims to swallow. You frittered money away.

"It was a high life lived on the hard earned money of others, the sweat and toil of other people, by you, the most dishonest of people.

"A clear message needs to be sent out to anyone engaged in this that they will receive a significant custodial sentence."

Ringleader Atif Mohammed, 25, was jailed for six years for his pivotal role in the plot while his cousin Asif Ali, 33, who has 24 previous convictions, was jailed for five years and ten months.

Their cousins, Shabeer Ahmed, 25 and Shakeel Ahmed, 21, were jailed for five years and two months and three and a half years respectively. They had all previously admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation at Bristol Crown Court.

Atif's brother Saif Mohammed, 21, admitted concealing, disguising, transferring or converting criminal property and was jailed for one year. The scammers were fed stolen contact details by call centre worker Zoe Latif, 26, who was "manipulated" by then boyfriend Atif, the court heard.

The former university student was handed a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting encouraging or assisting indictable offences.

Atif and Saif's mother Shameem Ali Mohammed, 44, was found guilty of possessing criminal property and was jailed for two years. All were jailed on Tuesday excluding Shakeel Ahmed, who was sentenced on Wednesday.

Officers traced one of the calls and raided the family's six-bed mansion, finding 41 mobile phones, 57 sim cards and dozens of phone numbers scrawled on a wall and over £100,000 in cash.

Judge Cottter added that there were others relatives and friends involved in the fraud which was evident because the crimes continued after the defendants' arrests.