Criminal group sentenced following £1m conspirancy to fraud

A group of fraudsters have been sentenced after they conspired to access customer accounts and steal their money, leading to just over £1 million in known fraudulent transactions.

Organised crime group members Tosin Aminoritse, Matthew Abass and Emmanuel Chukwumeka Okafor recruited bank insiders Tyrone Ayodele Odesanya, Ishmeal Jack and Hasses Khan, creating a sophisticated criminal network, targeting numerous victims.

The criminal network unlawfully accessed customer accounts to steal their money, using individuals pretending to be genuine customers to attend branches, conduct withdrawals and transfer funds to bank accounts under the group’s control.

Through the police’s investigation, they were able to obtain key evidence linking the bank insiders to the organised crime group, including CCTV footage, banking documents of accounts, fake IDs and mobile phone messages. The police also found large quantities of cash when searching the fraudsters’ homes.

The group were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 1 and 2 November 2023. Aminoritse received six and half years in prison, Abass received five and a half years, and Okafor received four years.

Bank insiders Odesanya and Jack received two and a half years, and three years and nine months respectively, whilst Mr Khan received a community order for 18 months to complete 240 hours unpaid work.

All victims have been fully reimbursed.

Detective Constable Andrew Hammond who investigated the case for the DCPCU said “Aminoritse, Abass and Okafor callously orchestrated the theft of over £1 million from unsuspecting victims. They carefully worked together to defraud banks and their customers. Odesanya, Jack and Khan abused their positions of trust and responsibility that came with their roles as bank staff.”

“Fraud like this can have a devastating impact on victims, both emotionally and psychologically. Thankfully, by working with the banking and finance industry, we were able to put a stop to this criminal activity and return the stolen money to the victims. Despite the complex nature of this fraud, the criminals were found out and brought to justice.”