Three Nigerian men and a lady residing in the United Kingdom have been jailed for a combined total of 11 years for defrauding Vodafone, EE, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse out of £429,304.
The group were exposed when a Hampshire resident told the police that between Friday 14 February 2020 and Wednesday 19 February 2020, four mobile phone accounts had been opened up in his name without his permission or knowledge.
Hampshire police then contacted EE who discovered the resident’s details had been used for a series of frauds. Operation Waterspout was set up as a Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary investigation into the Organised Crime Group who were involved in high-value commercial fraud.
The fraudsters used stolen personal details of existing customers from all over England and Wales to take out new phone contracts and obtain expensive mobile phones and similar items such as Apple Watches and iPads.
The sentences were as follows:
Oluwadamilola Bolaji, 32, of Black Eagle Drive in Gravesend, Kent, admitted his part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £145,000. He has been jailed for six years and three months.
Taofeeq Balogun, 30, of no fixed address In Basingstoke admitted his part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £25,000. He has been jailed for three years.
Taiwo Agusto, 43, of Osbourne Road in Dartford, Kent admitted his part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £3,000. He has been jailed for one year and nine months.
Carriba Johnson, 31, of Nelson Square in Southwark, London also admitted her part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £2,500. She has been given a suspended sentence of 24 months imprisonment.
The investigation included a search of the group’s homes where many forged documents were seized including fake passports, bankcards, bank statements, utility bills and stolen driving licences. Many of the items were used in the fraud to obtain mobile phones linking together by cell site data, sharing SIMS going into handsets, and also by bank transactions between themselves.176 phone company customers had their details used for 602 fraud transactions but did not experience any financial loss.
DC Owain Davies from the Hampshire Police Economic Crime Team said “This investigation involved extensive analysis of a huge amount of financial documentation in order to gather the evidence needed to put these offenders before the court. I hope that these results send a clear message to those who commit fraud that their actions won’t go unnoticed and that this type of behaviour will be investigated fully.”
