Four Nigerians have been jailed in the UK on charges of fraud after being found guilty of forging more than 2,000 marriage certificates to help people live in the UK illegally.
The four, identified as Abraham Alade Olarotimi Onifade, 41, Abayomi Aderinsoye Shodipo, 38, Nosimot Mojisola Gbadamosi, 31, and Adekunle Kabir, 54, were sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court in London on Tuesday.
The UK Home Office says they were part of an organised crime ring that sold fraudulent EU Settlement Scheme applications to Nigerian nationals for over two years; between March 2019 and May 2023, and had also provided false Nigerian Customary Marriage Certificates with other fraudulent documentation to help the applicants who patronised them remain in the country.
Read also: Nigerian faces 20 years imprisonment in the US on $10m fraud charge
Onifade, who is from Gravesend in Kent, and Shodipo, from Manchester, were both found guilty of conspiracy to facilitate illegal entry into the UK and conspiracy to provide articles used in fraud. They were jailed for six years and five years respectively.
Gbadamosi, from Bolton, was convicted of obtaining leave to remain by deception and fraud by false representation and sentenced to six years in prison. Kabir, from London, had the least sentence after being found guilty of possession of an identity document with improper intention but was cleared of obtaining leave to remain by deception. He was jailed for nine months.
“We will continue to work tirelessly to secure our borders and clamp down on the gangs who prey on vulnerable people to make money,” said Paul Moran, Home Office chief immigration officer.
“Those who abuse our borders will be brought to justice,” The Home Office wrote on X.
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