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UK Sends Nigerian '419' Scammer to Prison

They got one of these ba@#%rds!!

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: UK Sends Nigerian '419' Scammer to Prison

Posted to the web April 6, 2004
Lagos
A Nigerian based in Wales, United Kingdom has been jailed for 20 months by a Welsh court, for tricking people into handing over money and personal data in expectation of receiving a huge windfall.
Peter Okoeguale, 33, who was arrested in Wales while in the process of committing one such advance fee fraud, '419', scam, also faces deportation from the UK at the end of his sentence.

When arrested, Okoeguale was found in possession of headed notepapers and forged documents, all created for the purposes of duping gullible victims and making them believe he was in charge of a large fortune which needed to be laundered through a Western bank account.

In sentencing the fraudster, Judge John Rogers QC said: "You had in your possession a substantial amount of equipment and carefully drafted fraudulent documents with the intention that they should be used to fool gullible people."

Handing out the custodial sentence Rogers said "only a period of imprisonment is appropriate" for a crime which amounted to "international fraud".

Police investigating the case have tracked down 11 victims of Okoeguale. One individual in Scotland lost oe20,000 to the scam, according to police.

Although sympathy is often thin on the ground for victims of the scam, who fall foul to their own greed and gullibility, the National Criminal Intelligence Service said the organised crime rings behind them still need to be cracked because the money raised by perpetrating such frauds often funds far more serious criminal activities such as the trafficking of drugs and people.

At the time of his arrest, Okoeguale was based in Ireland where he was living with his wife and children.

April 6, 2004 at 01:51 PM in Online crime | Permalink | TrackBack (33) | Top of page | Blog Home