Courage of American victim leads police to lottery fraudsters

A City of London Police ‘sting’ operation in a London hotel brought down an international lottery fraud and led to the imprisonment of a pair of 419 fraudsters.

Joshua Obasuyi, 49, from East London, and Julius Oweka, 48, from Croydon were jailed for a total of 50 months at the Old Bailey.

The scam first appeared on the police radar when the FBI was contacted by a US resident who had lost $400,000 after being informed via email she had won the lottery.

Over a four-year period the victim, who is a retired professor, made a succession of payments that she was told would release her lottery winnings.

The fraudsters were tracked to the UK after they continued to speak to the victim using UK telephone numbers, at which point the FBI alerted the City of London Police.

In 2009 the woman was asked to bring $6500 to London, and after consulting with detectives agreed to meet one of the men at a hotel near Blackfriars Bridge.

As the time of the meeting approached she was called and told to go to the lobby, but when Obasuyi appeared to collect the money he was instead greeted by the investigating officers and arrested.

After studying Obasuyi’s mobile phone officers quickly identified Oweka as his accomplice, who was then later arrested at his home.

DC Nick Court, from the City of London Police, said:

"These men cast the net far and wide as they preyed on people's sympathies, hopes and dreams to steal anything from a few hundred pounds up to several hundred thousand pounds. Thanks to the courage of one American victim and the resourcefulness of the investigation team Obasuyi and Oweka, no longer pose a threat to society, both in this country and abroad.
 
"This '419' con illustrates once again how fraudsters are capitalising on advancements in technology to locate potential victims all over the world, but also shows how this threat is being met by international law enforcement working in unison to disrupt and dismantle their criminal operations."

Obasuyi denied conspiracy to defraud, two counts of money laundering and possessing an article for use in fraud, but was found guilty on all charges following a trial.