Gang of Nigerian fraudsters face jail for using the identities of MPs, judges and police officers to con the taxpayer out of more than £10m

Scammers used stolen personal details from Civil Service Sports Council

Gang stole £2,500,000 before staff at HMRC spotted abnormal claims

Adedamola Oyebode and Oluwatobe Emmanuel Odeyemi ran scheme

Pair worked with Oluwagbenga Stephen Odeyemi and Kayode Sanni

A gang of Nigerian fraudsters are facing jail for for using the identities of MPs, judges and police officers during a £10million scam.

The crew stole personal details from the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC), to make fraudulent claims over a four-year period.

Member lists were ‘stolen to order’ from CSSC and used to place orders for tax credit starter packs used in fraudulent claims over a four year period.

The gang managed to get away with nearly £2,500,000 before staff at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs spotted the ‘extraordinarily high rate’ of claims being made by civil servants.

If the scam had not been stopped it could have reaped more than £10,260,525.

CSSC events manager Adedamola Oyebode, 30, stole membership lists and passed them on to her brothers-in-law Oluwatobe Emmanuel Odeyemi, 34, and Oluwagbenga Stephen Odeyemi, 39, who ran the fraud with Kayode Sanni, 38.

Sanni, an illegal immigrant, denied being involved in the fraud and told Old Bailey jurors ‘my conscience is clear’ as he stood trial alone.

But he was convicted of one count of conspiracy to become knowingly concerned in a fraudulent act between 10 March 2009 and 11 June 2013.


Judge Michael Topolski QC remanded him in custody and said: ‘I’m quite satisfied at this stage that there is a significant risk that if he were released on bail he would fail to attend.

‘In my judgement the situation has changed drastically.

‘He chose to contest this matter against what I considered to be overwhelming evidence.

‘His incentive to stay in this country has now diminished.’

Emmanuel Odeyemi, Gumbs and Adedamole Oyebode have already pleaded guilty and will be sentenced with Sanni at the Old Bailey on 6 July.

Prosecutors have dropped charges against Emmanuel’s wife Oluwatosin Oyebode.

Prosecutor Allison Hunter QC said: ‘These defendants went to exceptionally complex and sophisticated lengths in their orchestration of this fraud.

‘They themselves operate under a number of fluid pseudonyms and false identities, operate a multiplicity of email address, have access to a number of mobile phone numbers and have spread the conduct of this fraud over computers and electronic storage devices sufficient to stock a small warehouse.’

Ms Hunter said the investigators began by identifying one of the multiple false tax credit claimants as Chantelle Gumbs, who has admitted her part in the scam.

The source of the stolen identity was traced to the CSSC in Chadwick Street, Westminster, where six staff had password protected access to members’ details.

Adedamole Oyebode, who worked for the CSSC between August 2008 and August 2010, has since admitted supplying lists of members and their details in return for payment.

She also made calls to the tax credit helpline to obtain application packs.

Further investigation revealed the fraudsters had used the details to create false identities, buy online insurance and open false bank accounts to receive the cash.

The profits of the scam were then transferred out into either their own accounts or through Western Union facilities set up by Sanni and Emmanuel Odeyemi.

Jurors were told that two of the gang, Stephen Odeyemi and his wife Oluwatumininu Banjo, 40, have fled to Nigeria and are wanted abroad.

Ms Hunter said: ‘These individuals conspired together to obtain in excess of £10,260,525.33 in fraudulent tax credits using the identities of 10,300 police officers, MPs, members of the judiciary, and civil servants for example, whose personal data and information was stolen from the Civil Service Sports Council.

‘The CSSC provides leisure events and activities together with sporting and fitness facilities to approximately 120,000 Public Sector employees or pensioners, including civil servants, local government employees, the NHS, teachers, police officers, fire fighters and HM Armed Forces personnel.’

Sanni, from Leeds, denied but conspiracy to become knowingly concerned in a fraudulent act - but was convicted of the crime.

Adedamola Oyebode, from Bellingham, southeast London, Stephen Odeyimi from Dagenham, Essex and Chantelle Gumbs, will be sentenced alongside him for fraud charges on 6 July at the Old Bailey.

Oluwatumininu Banjo, also from Dagenham, and Emmanuel Odeyemi, from Gravesend, Kent, are believed to be on the run in Nigeria.

Simon York, Director of Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: 'We have dismantled an organised criminal attack on the tax credits system. HMRC officers and our counter-fraud checks identified the attack, and our investigators uncovered those behind the fraud, preventing £8 million of false claims being paid to the criminals. A further £2.4 million in tax credits claimed by the fraudsters was paid before we could stop the crime group and prevent further fraud.

'Tax Credits are paid to some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We have to strike a balance between making it easy for people to receive what is due, and having procedures in place to identify and stop fraudulent claims. Our investigation was made more difficult as the criminals had hijacked real identity details to make the fraudulent claims.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4641844/Nigerian-fraudsters-face-jail-10million-scam.html#ixzz4lCDdbxSx
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

After Black Americans, Yorubas are next in d number of blacks in UK jail.

Their normal crimes are but not limited to;

credit card fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, artifice to defraud, fraudulent misrepresentation of material facts etc

These guys no get chil.....

This is serious......

Ok. Names checked.

mohaMADbuari:
These guys no get chil.....

If they could do such in foreign land then we are finished here

fkpboss:
Ok. Names checked.

Please this is not a tribal thread

Too bad. I be ibo but got no time to check names. All the western world knows is that they are Nigerians....

BuariCopyPaste:



Please this is not a tribal thread

I'm just doing my job sir.

See comments.......


ukokay, stoke, United Kingdom, about 3 hours ago
"It's a national industry in Nigeria, they can probably take A levels in fraud and scamming.Lock them up with no connection to outside world.15 years minimum."

More comments.....

kasuku, kyrenia, about 3 hours ago
YET AGAIN ~ MORE FOREIGN CRIMINALS! Is there no end to the foreigners who are criminals in this country, as if we do not have enough of our own. If only these people used their multi talents in their own countries maybe their countries would be in a better state than they are at present. Seize ALL assets of ALL foreign criminals and deport them immediately to serve their sentences in their own countries.



This is one of the reason some of us no longer want to go by the name Nigeria

We need baptism from the ugly reputation dangling on our necks as Nigerians

These is really a sad time to be a Nigerian.

This is unbearable.....this people have spoiled this country. In fact, I no longer want to be a Nigerian

mohaMADbuari:
These guys no get chil.....

I tell you.....they have sworn to disgrace the country home and abroad with their trademark frauds and ritualism

more comments.....


aberrant_apostrophe, Reading, United Kingdom, 9 hours ago
Until such time the money is recovered from these thieves, take the money out of the £250m Foreign Aid budget for Nigeria.

Lalasticlala mynd44

Don't be partial.... Front page asap

O will organize a protest if this thread is not moved to front page
lalasticlala mynd44

Na them accommodators......

ftc

When its fraud I know its my people from the west and if its drugs I know its people from the east, funny I didn't even read it to know.

Hmm. . .See gobe

Hmmmmm. Not again.

Check my signature for your quality customised Atm card flash drive.

Dancing shoki

Yoruber-scammers
Igbo-drug peddlers, case closed

AFONJAS

Good.

Let the law deal with them mercilessly, because I am a lazy man who is envious of their success and I must bring down my hardworking brother.

Here to check names there make females not to look our way with the champagne lifestyle, good thing you have been named and shamed