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 fra¥d. The fraudsters used stol£n 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.
Oluwadamilola Bolaji, 32, Kent, admitted his part in the fra*d conspiracy to the value of £145,000. He has been jailed for six years and three months. Taofeeq Balogun, 30, in Basingstoke admitted his part in the fra¥d conspiracy to the value of £25,000. He has been jailed for three years. Taiwo Agusto, 43, in Dartford, Kent admitted his part in the fra¥d conspiracy to the value of £3,000. He has been jailed for one year and nine months. Carriba Johnson, 31, of Nelson Square in Southwark, London also admitted her part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £2,500. She has been given a suspended sentence of 24 months imprisonment.
The investigation including a search of the group’s homes where many forged documents were seized including fake passports, bankcards, bank statements, utility bills and stolen driving licences.
Many of the items were used in the fra¥d to obtain mobile phones linking together by cell site data, sharing SIMS going into handsets, and also by bank transactions between themselves.176 phone company customers had their details used for 602 fraud transactions, but did not experience any financial loss.
