Student fraudster loses jail term appeal
9:06am Thursday 11th March 2010 in News
A NIGERIAN student who operated a million-pound internet fraud from his digs has failed to persuade judges that his four-and-a-half-year jail term was too long.
Sunday Asekomhe, aged 29, who was studying at Bolton University, was one of a gang of fraudsters who targeted internet adverts for rental accommodation in the USA and England. Landlords would be sent emails by gang members and a fee for a deposit and initial rent payment would be agreed.
But the victim would get a forged cheque made out for thousands of dollars or pounds more than the agreed figure. They would then be contacted again, told a “mistake” had been made and asked to send the overpayment back through Western Union.
At least £1,000 each was conned out of “many hundreds of victims” and the total fraud ran into seven figures, London’s Criminal Appeal Court heard.
Asekomhe, of Velour Close, Salford, admitted conspiracy to defraud and was jailed for four-and-a-half years at Manchester Crown Court on February 27 last year.
Yesterday, he asked Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, Mr Justice Davis and Judge Jeremy Roberts, QC, to reduce the sentence, claiming it was too harsh.
But Lord Justice Burnton dismissed the appeal, saying: “This was a massive conspiracy to defraud, based on persuading citizens of the US and this country to part with large sums of cash.”
