Two Nigerians Sentenced To Prison In UK For Fraudulently Claiming £500k COVID-19 Loan

Two Nigerians, Timilehin Olasemo and David Akinneye, has been jailed for fraudulently claiming about £500,000 in loan meant for businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

The two convicts were said to have exploited the UK Government’s Coronavirus Bounce Back loan scheme (BBLS) by using the identities of eight innocent people to fraudulently obtain £489k.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government created the scheme to support businesses struggling through the lack of economic activity.

The scheme was effectively a Government-backed loan organised and managed through UK banks. The size of the loan available is determined by turnover demonstrated by the business to the satisfaction of the bank.’

Timilehin Yvette Olasemo, 39, appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, March 17, and was sentenced to three years and two months imprisonment for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. Olasemo pleaded guilty to the offence on 12 November, 2020.

Co-defendant, Olufumi David Akinneye, 33, was sentenced to a total of five years and six months imprisonment for conspiracy to money launder and conspiracy to commit fraud after pleading guilty to those offences on 12 November, 2020.

In a statement on Wednesday by the Metropolitan police, Olasemo and Akinneye were said to have connived to benefit from illegal loan applications worth £489,000, and had received over £250,000 at the time of their arrest.

“Akinneye was the first out of the two to be identified during ongoing enquiries into organised criminality by officers of the Met’s North West London Economic Crime Unit. Olasemo was identified from evidence seized during Akinneye’s arrest,” the statement reads.

“On Friday, 16 October, officers from Met’s North West Economic Crime Unit, part of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Central Specialist Crime Command, arrested Olasemo at her home address. She was charged and remanded in custody the same day.

“The investigating officers identified that £489,000 worth of fraudulent loan applications were made using ten identities. Of this, £297,000 worth of loans were successfully obtained by the pair and dissipated. The remaining amount was successfully stopped by the banks.

“It was discovered that Olasemo had obtained and used the personal details of eight individuals in order to fraudulently apply for the loans. She had stolen these identities after accessing employee records containing personal information during her employment.

“The fraudulently obtained monies was paid into the business bank account before being dispersed into mule accounts and later withdrawn from cash machines. Throughout this process, Olasemo sought advice from an accomplice named Olufumi David Akinneye.

“Akinneye provided Olasemo with guidance in relation to laundering the proceeds of the frauds and safe addresses to use as correspondence for accounts. He also acted as a middle-man between people who were willing to sell on their bank accounts for use in fraud and other fraudsters who needed mule accounts to receive money obtained from diversion frauds.”

Meanwhile, Akinneye, who was arrested in August 2020, was also found guilty of being involved in a romance scam.

KanyiDaily had also reported how Prophet Israel Oladele Ogundipe was sentenced to two years imprisonment for defrauding a UK-based woman to the tune of N17 million.