Three Nigerians were among an organized crime group jailed for a combined total of 11 years for defrauding major phone companies of over £400,000 in the U.K.
Four people who pled guilty to defrauding Vodafone, EE, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse out of £429,304 have been jailed for a combined total of 11 years at Portsmouth Crown Court.
According to a statement released by Hampshire police, the offenses came to light when a Hampshire resident told the police that between 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. EE contracts had been taken out in the Fareham and Waterlooville Carphone Warehouse stores and phones where also taken out in O2 and Vodafone stores.
Hampshire police then contacted EE who discovered the residents 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.
