UK Daily Mail, Thursday, feb 24, 2011

A NIGERIAN Immigrant stole the identities of 350 people to claim £1.3million in bogus benefit scam of its kind.
Olaide Taiwo, 35, hijacked the identities while working as a security guard for a number of large national companies.

He then used the names to claim tens of thousands in working tax credits. This week he was jailed for eight and half years- the highest ever sentence for tax credit fraud.

Taiwo is understood to have arrived illegally in Britain in 2003 with his wife. Although three applications to stay in the UK failed, in 2005 he was granted discretionary leave to remain.

It was during this period that his scam began. The father of two submitted more than 300 fraudulent tax credit claims between June 2004 and July 2008 worth over £1million.

When he was arrested , investigators found ' identity thieves' paradise, with stacks of fake passports and driving licenses and £70.000 in cash lying around his council flat in camberwell, South east london.

The property was littered with paper work detailling the names, addresses and National Insurance numbers of hundreds of people which he had taken from employee payroll records at dozens of companies around london where he had worked as a security guard.

They also found templates for making false passports, birth certificates, nhs cards and driving licences. Taiwo used the identities to open hundreds of bank accounte for the benefits to be paid into, but HM Revenue & customs became suspicious about the multiple tax credit applications and arrested him in july 2008.

They believed he was the ring leader of an organised criminal network which include his sister-in-law, who worked for a jobcenter, but the rest of the gang are thought to have fled to Nigeria.

Taiwo , also tried to leave the country, but he was arrested again on august 6, last year. He was foungdguilty at Inner London Crown of Fraudulently obtainning payment of tax credits, by using the names and addresses of individuals without their consent and acquiring criminal properties.

Sentencing him, Judge Simon Davies ordered that he be deported at the end of his eight and half years sentence.

He said: this is a fraud on a substantial scale. You lied and sought to manipulate with ease and confidence and with an arrogance that was astonishing. You were intimately connected with every aspect of the fraud, stealing real details of real people to commit identity fraud on a large scale:

Another member of the gang, Taiwo sister-in-law, Olajumoke Ademuyiwa, 42, a jobcenter plus employee, was also found guilty of fraudulently obtaining tax credits payment in an earlier hearing. Ademuyiwa open the bank account into which the benefits were paid, but she is not thought to have used her job as a jobcenter worker to make false claim.

Her husband, Oluyemi Amidu taiwo- Taiwo,s brother is thought to have flee the country. she is due to be sentenced in april.

Richad Young, Senior investigatin officer for HMRC said, this pair blantantly hijacked the identities of over 350 innocent people and stole from British Tax payers by submitting over 300 fraudulent tax credit claims between June 2004 and June 2008.

They delibrately attacked and abused a system designed to provide financial help to the most vulnerable people in our society.

These are the type of people that makes my old man assume money is picked from the streets of london, that look at the son of my friend, he travelled years after you have been in uk and he has build houses for his parents, and cars are packed in their yard, is it not the same UK you are in, what are you doing with your money that you dont want to do same for me, i just laugh and tell him that im sure he or she is not doing the same work im doing .

These are the people. I hope people will learn

This is sad n very pathetic, this kind of action makes fin much much difficult 4 fellow 9ja in d UK. All nigerians r viewed/seen as scammers. God wi help us in our quest to build 9ja integrity home n abroad. Amen.

yoruba's wont kill us in uk. 90% of all kinda crimes is commited by this tribe in d UK. From drugs to scam marriages, now they even upgrade to credit card? I think they should be a tribal ban,

Stop bin tribalistic, let's call a spade a spade what's bad is bad what will u say about ibo's n drugs and importation of fake substandard stuffs? Ibo, hausa, yoruba every nigerian should unify and help in rebranding 9ja,

We talking about Nigerians in d UK n not ibo's imports to 9ja. I'm a liberal k, but I spit th truth without fear. Are yu even sure I'm not Yoruba? But dat dsnt mean I won't declare bad tins about ma tribe cos I speak d language. You, stop been tribal-protective!!!

Woah woah no be fight now!

You weren't showing understanding nau. Mi o ba yin ja k

See how husband fled leaving his wife taking the fall bwaaaaaah!!
At least, he surely built a mansion back home where he can rest with his feet up while his "compadres and wifey" languish in jail!