NIGERIA : UK Court Jails Two Nigerians For Taking Over N260million COVID-19 Loans Meant For 10 Businesses

The first convict is Timilehin Olasemo, 39, of Bedale Road, Romford, who 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 at Southwark Crown Court.

The co-defendant, Olufumi David Akinneye, 33, of Cowthorpe Road, Lambeth, was sentenced to a total of five years and six months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to commit fraud after pleading guilty to those offences on November 12, 2020 at Southwark Crown Court.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government created a 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.

Due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and the economic consequences on the UK economy, the loan scheme was set up to ensure that applicants were looked upon favourably, and that their application was processed quickly, resulting in limited security checks being undertaken.

The court heard how Olasemo exploited the weaknesses in the application system and realised that she, with assistance of others, could create fake businesses – using the identities of real people – to apply for the loans.

As the business account had been registered to a separate address to the personal account holder’s address, its existence would not become apparent to the real personal account holder until the bank chased them for the loan repayments.

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.

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.

Akinneye was arrested on Thursday, 20 August by officers from the Met’s North West Economic Crime Unit. He was charged and remanded the same day.