U.K jails Nigerian lawyer and prince for £1.8m fraud

A 53-year-old Nigerian lawyer cum Prince, Olanrewaju Bolaji Otukoya, has bagged a 5-year jail term in the U.K  over his involvement in a £1.8m fraud.

The Nigerian lawyer who is the son of King J.B. Otukoya, Fiwagbade I, the Oligun of Ilugun , Ogun State, headed the Luton-based gang that committed £1.8m fraud by intercepting cheques in the post that were intended for local businesses. He failed to answer his police bail in July 2014 and absconded to Nigeria.

It was gathered that the convict fled to Nigeria after he skipped bail, was sentenced at the Old Bailey, on Friday, October 12, following an operation led by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU). Otukoya who has several previous convictions for fraud, was traced and extradited back to the UK after an approval by a Nigerian court in April, 2018.

The Nigerian lawyer who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud users of Royal Mail Postal Services, recruited two other members of the gang, Moshin Abbas and Anjam Shah who abused their positions as workers at a Royal Mail sorting office by stealing post containing cheques destined for local companies

The gang intercepted cheques, worth over £1.8 million in total, which were then paid into business bank accounts that were set up and controlled by Otukoya, using similar names as the target company. Abbas and Shah were sentenced in 2016 to four years and five year and three months imprisonment respectively.