Nigerian Couple have been jailed for scamming a man for £43,000 - fooling him into thinking he had won £1.5m

A couple involved in conning a man out of more than £43,000 in a £1.5 million competition scam have been jailed.

Osamudianmen Amayo (27) and Maureen Omhenaka (28), both of Empire Road, Leicester, pleaded guilty to converting criminal property, namely £43,425 and 1,500 euros, fraudulently obtained, between April 13 and November 29, 2014.
James Bide-Thomas, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court: "This was a confidence fraud upon a Swiss national.

"The victim receive a text purporting to be from UK Apple Incorporated saying he had won £1.5 million. "He was told to get in touch via an e-mail address and was provided with bogus certificates confirming the win.

"He received a request from the UK Gaming Authority requesting he send a copy of his passport.
"During the next few weeks there were communications between the complainant and someone claiming to be called Dr Warwick, who told him he had to pay £575 fees for the certificates to be copied, followed by larger demands."

The victim, who was duped into believing he had won £1.5 million handed over £9,000 to cover tax clearance fees.
The fraudsters, possibly involving other unknown people, asserted the United Nations had become involved in a money laundering inquiry.

The victim then received a phone call from someone purporting to be an Italian ambassador.
Further demands for payments of fees followed and the victim paid up.
Mr Bide-Thomas said: "He'd taken out loans and spent his children's inheritance and was left in a precarious situation.

"He feels he was brainwashed and can't believe he was so credulous, putting it down to being 'naive, old and vulnerable.'
"He says it will take five years before he's in a similar situation to before the fraud.
"The money went into both defendants' bank accounts."

Amayo was jailed for two years and three months.Omhenaka, received a two year sentence.
Sentencing, Judge Ebraham Mooncey said: "The victim is very embarrassed by what's happened and he can't believe he fell into this confidence fraud.

"It's not the first time one reads about these kind of things, which means there are still people who are victims of such frauds.
"He was informed he'd won £1.5 million and was bedazzled by that.
"He ended up losing a lot of money to fraudsters.

"It went into your bank accounts and was transferred to foreign accounts - and whittled away."
The court heard the defendants who married in February have two young children, 15 months and three-months-old, currently being cared for by a friend.
Neither has any previous convictions.

Defence counsel said Omhenaka had recently been given leave to remain in the UK but Amayo might be "automatically deported" to Nigeria at the end of his sentence.
The judge ordered that the defendants' only available assets - £240 from Omhenaka's account – be paid in compensation to the victim.

Talk of the people who give Nigeriand bad image abroad, they are amongst them