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.
Ojo and Agbaje were
arrested at Agbaje's home in Hornchurch, Essex. When police searched Nigerian
student Ojo's home in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, they found a copy of Neil
Strauss's bestselling dating manual The Game with them, which reveals the the
skills and techniques used by 'pick up gurus' to seduce women. They also
used a book of love poems called For You, My Soul Mate: Loving Messages To
Share With A Very Special Person, by Douglas Pagels to help them seduce the
unsuspecting woman.
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
recognises 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 cyber crime 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.
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