A 33-year-old Nigerian man, Saheed Azeez, has been convicted of defr@uding 272 people of £220,000 in the United Kingdom
Azeez, won refugee status in the U.K. by claiming he was being pers£cuted by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria for being gay, was found guilty of masterminding a £220,000 Facebook and eBay parcel fr@ud racket.
After gaining Asylum, the convict went on to have three children with three women, marrying the third. He now says he is bis£xual.
Having settled in Wigan, Greater Manchester, Azeez teamed up with Nigerian fr@udsters to craft a ‘sophisticated and well-resourced’ sales sc@m, targeting items on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and WhatsApp.
According to DailyMail, individuals selling high-value items were convinced to dispatch their goods to various addresses, promised payment upon arrival. However, Azeez would, in reality, collect the items and sell them in his brother’s electronics shop.
In a span of 14 months, as many as 272 victims dispatched goods totaling £220,000 to unfamiliar residences, lured into the scam by Azeez. He incentivized his ‘partners’ with a share from each sale in exchange for receiving the wrongfully obtained items.
Police eventually tracked down Azeez as he was dropping off one of his young sons at primary school. As he was about to be detained, he hid three smartphones used in the sc@m inside the boy’s school bag, which were found by a teaching assistant.
The phones were found to contain videos made by Azeez: one sent to an underworld contact named ‘Baddest Boy’ showed images of used smartphones stolen from sellers. Most of the proceeds were spirited out of the UK using Bitcoin.
At Bolton Crown Court, Azeez admitted conspiracy to commit fr@ud by false representation and plotting to possess criminal property. He will be sentenced next week but faces up to six years in jail…(continue reading on next slide)
