A MAN whose bank account was used to launder thousands of pounds swindled out of a Leamington widow will have to re-mortgage his home to pay her some compensation – or face prison.
It had been agreed by the prosecution and the defence at Warwick Crown Court that Akinyemi Adigun’s benefit from his part in the fraud had been £900.
But an irate Judge Andrew Lockhart QC refused to sanction that, declaring it was ‘wholly wrong in fact and in law.’
He pointed out Adigun’s benefit was the £4,000 the victim was cheated out of which was paid into his bank account – not the £900 he ended up with as his cut.
And following further discussions, that was accepted – and the judge ruled 36-year-old Adigun, of Attleboro Road, Moston, Manchester, had a benefit of £4,000 and assets of £50,000.
He ordered that £4,000 should be confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act and used to pay compensation to the victim.
Told Adigun would have to re-mortgage his home, Judge Lockhart gave him three months to pay or face four months in jail in default – after which he would still owe the money.
Adigun had been given a 20-month jail sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work after he had been found guilty following a trial last year of possessing criminal property.
A second man, 39-year-old Dare Moyo, of Rawsthorne Avenue, Manchester, who had admitted an identical charge, was given a 15-month sentence, also suspended for two years, and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work – but did not face any action under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
During Adigun’s trial it was said the victim was cheated out of thousands of pounds in a fraud by a man posing as a British doctor working overseas, who she had met on a dating website.
