For benefiting illegally from the United Kingdom’s
coronavirus loan scheme, a Southwark Crown court has sentenced two persons of
Nigerian descent, Timilehin Olasemo and David Akinneye, to a total of over
eight years in prison.
Under the UK Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), financial
support is provided to small and medium-sized businesses affected by the
pandemic; business owners can borrow as low as £2,000 and as high as 25 percent
of turnover.
In a statement published 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.
Olasemo, who is said to be a human resource executive, was
charged to court over “conspiracy to commit fraud”, and impersonation.
The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to the offence in November
2020, and was sentenced to three years and two months in prison at the resumed
court hearing on Wednesday.
David Akinneye, aged 33, is described as her accomplice, and
was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
David Akinneye. Photo: Metropolitan police, UK
“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bank account before being dispersed into mule accounts and later withdrawn from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.”
Speaking on the conviction, Chris Collins of the
Metropolitan’s north west economic crime unit, said: “Today’s result serves as
evidence of the zero-tolerance approach the MPS takes to individuals found
guilty of fraud.”
“We will continue to crack down on individuals who are found
to be exploiting government schemes for their own monetary gain,” he added.
Meanwhile, Akinneye, who was arrested in August 2020, was
also found guilty of being involved in a romance scam.
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