Three men have been jailed at the Southwark Crown Court in London for a combined sixteen-and-a-half years for trying to steal over £1 million in tax repayments by setting up thousands of bogus HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) accounts online.
Saheed Oyeneye, Oluwakemi Adesaogun and Rasaq Omotunde, all from South East London, used stolen and fabricated data – including the names of sports personalities and deceased children – to set up thousands of bogus online VAT and Self Assessment accounts with the intention of stealing tax repayments from the public purse.
Caught on camera leaving an Internet Cafe in Woolwich
Caught on camera leaving an Internet Cafe in Woolwich
Most of the attempts were unsuccessful, as HMRC identified the bogus accounts early on. However, when money was paid out, the trio banked the proceeds in one of hundreds of bank accounts under their control. Investigators discovered the personal details of over 200 deceased children were stored on computers recovered during searches of the defendants’ properties.
At the peak of the fraud, the trio used more than 20 internet cafes to register up to 310 new accounts a day.
Saheed Oyeneye, 34, of Lullingstone Lane, Catford pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Saheed Oyeneye
Saheed Oyeneye
Oluwakemi Adesaogun, 38, of Antelope Road, Woolwich pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. He was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.
Oluwakemi Adesaogun
Oluwakemi Adesaogun
Rasaq Omotunde, 38, of Winchfield Road, Sydenham was found guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
Rasaq Omotunde
Rasaq Omotunde
Christopher Gill, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigation, HMRC, said: “This trio thought they were running a high-tech and sophisticated fraud using a series of addresses and internet cafes to set up accounts using stolen data. They bombarded the system with applications for tax repayments from these fake accounts, in the hope of getting rich quick.
“These fraudsters thought the anonymity of the internet would protect them. This case demonstrates that that we can and will track down and prosecute those who attack our online systems.
"This was nothing but a common repayment fraud attempt which our systems quickly identified as bogus. HMRC shuts down the vast majority of bogus repayment applications.”
HMRC is continuously reviewing and updating its systems to mitigate against these types of frauds. Its systems are resilient and the majority of bogus accounts are identified early on.
The case follows the successful conviction of Mutiu Oladele Lawal and Saheed Dolapo Sanni, who obtained stolen data from Oyeneye.
Confiscation proceedings to recover the proceeds of this crime are underway.