Two Nigerian men who duped a woman out of £1.6 million in a
sophisticated romance scam were today, Friday, January 8, jailed for a total of
5-and-a-half years at Basildon Crown Court.
Ife Ojo, 31, (left) of Hammonds Drive, Peterborough in
Cambridgeshire was jailed for 34 months for conspiracy to defraud. His
accomplice Olusegun Agbaje (right), 43, of Kershaw Close, Hornchurch in Essex
was jailed for 32 months for conspiracy to defraud.
Detective Chief Inspector Gary Miles, of FALCON - the Met’s
specialist Cyber Crime and Fraud Unit, said:
"Today’s sentencing recognizes the devastating impact
this kind of fraud has on its victims. I would like to pay tribute to the
victim in this case who provided evidence which was crucial in securing two
guilty pleas in this case.
"The financial and emotional impact to the victim has
been huge. Many victims borrow money from friends and family to pay the
suspects. Victims typically feel embarrassed and ashamed when they realise they
have been duped, so they often don't report what has happened to them or even
confide in a friend."
In January 2015, a woman in her 40s, from Hillingdon,
reported to Action Fraud that she had been a victim of fraud. The case was
referred the Met's cybercrime and fraud team, FALCON
The victim told police that in February 2014 she met a man
calling himself Christian Anderson on a dating site. After a few weeks, they
met in person. He told her that he was an engineer working in the oil industry,
that he was divorced and had a daughter, and that his father and sister died of
cancer.
After a few weeks, he told her that he loved her. He said he
was having a difficult time working on a project in Benin, Africa. He said that
he wanted to come home to be with her but first he needed some specialist
machinery so he could finish the project. He asked her for a loan to pay import
duty for the machinery.
She paid over £30,000 into the business account of his
supposed personal assistant, a man allegedly called Brandon Platt, but Anderson
then requested more cash, ranging from £25,000 for a police fine, to thousands
of pounds to free up inheritance money left by his mother, who lived in Cape
Town.
He told her that he wanted to use the inheritance money to
set up a life with the victim. Fees for freeing up the inheritance money
included costs for holding it in a vault in Amsterdam and $170,000 to pay for a
non-existent "anti-terrorist certificate" so that the money could be
deposited at a bank.
The victim had been convinced that they would live together,
and had been looking for a home for them to buy. She met with someone claiming
to be Anderson's lawyer, and even travelled to an office in Amsterdam to meet a
man calling himself Dr Spencer, who was supposedly responsible for holding the
money in a vault.
Between March and December 2014, the victim paid £1.6million
into numerous bank accounts.
The money was subsequently transferred into various personal
accounts, including £35,000 to the bank accounts of Ife Ojo and Olusegun
Agbaje. The victim doubted the authenticity of Anderson's stories on numerous
occasions but every time she asked for proof he sent false documentation or
made up excuses for why he could not send her evidence.
FALCON carried out a financial investigation. They
identified Agbaje as one of the recipients of the victim's money and went to
his home address where they found him with Ojo. Both were arrested and their
homes searched. At Ojo's home, they found a laptop containing records of the
victim's conversation with Anderson, a memento book seemingly sent to Anderson
by another victim and a copy of the book 'The Game'.
FALCON established that they had received £35,000 of the
victim's cash and charged them. In September 2015, Ojo, a student from
Peterborough and Agbaje, an administrative assistant of Hornchurch both pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to defraud at Basildon Crown Court.
Detectives are continuing their enquiries as they seek other
members of the gang and try to identify any other victims.
Source: Metropolitan Police
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