My son got caught in a similar way back in the summer, posted about it here - https://passionford.com/forum/genera...-scamming.html

Basically, as he’d shown enough due diligence before parting with the cash, the bank ended up refunding his money, as they’re obliged to if their accounts have been used to perpetuate the fraud, but it was only the fact he could show evidence of the checks that he got it back, without that, he’d have been screwed.
The police aren’t interested, too much else to do, and Action Fraud are just a waste of time, just a statistics gathering exercise as far as I can tell