Bank fraudsters each ordered to pay back £1 each

Two fraudsters who helped plunder millions of pounds from elderly bank customers with the help of corrupt insiders have each been ordered to pay back just £1.

Tosin Aminoritse, 34, was one of the masterminds behind the scheme and targeted victims banking with RBS, NatWest and Santander.

Pensioners, some of them in their eighties, had tens of thousands of pounds stolen from them.

Ishmael Jack, 42, who worked at NatWest in St Albans, Herts, was linked to the theft of over £1m and attempts to transfer a further £280,000 to ‘mule’ accounts.

Jack was recruited by Matthew Abass, 32, who alongside Aminoritse, paid corrupt bank staff to target customer accounts.

Another NatWest employee, Tyrone Odesanya, 34, became involved in the plot along with Santander Hassess Khan, 32.

Aminoritse was one of the ringleaders in the sophisticated fraud that involved many players.

Hackers stole personal information from customers while insiders changed confidential details so that accounts could be emptied.

Bank cards and PIN numbers would then be sent to the fraudsters’ addresses.

So-called ‘strikers’ then went into bank branches to withdraw large amounts of cash.

Corrupt postal workers would intercept mail that would have tipped off the account holders, and money was also transferred into a network of ‘mule’ accounts.

Aminoritse recruited people to the criminal enterprise and paid them with the money that had been stolen from customers.

He was jailed for six and a half years in November 2023 while Abass, was locked up for five years and seven months and Emmanuel Okafor, 25, received four years.

Jack was locked up for three years and nine months.

Aminoritse returned to Southwark Crown Court for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act and was told to pay a default sum of £1 as he has no identifiable assets.

Judge Sally-Ann Hales said: ‘The defendant has a criminal lifestyle. He has benefited from criminal conduct. The value of his benefit is £1,566,404.

‘The recoverable amount is £1, as there are no identifiable available assets.

‘The sum is to be paid within seven days, with a default imprisonment of seven days.’

Judge Hales said that if assets become available in the future they could be subject to confiscation.

‘If assets are identified in the future it is up to the prosecution to come back and seek a variation of the order’, said the judge.

In June Abass was found to have benefited by £1,660,402, but was also ordered to pay back just £1 as he too has no identifiable assets.

Okafor’s confiscation hearing will take place on 6 February next year.

Earlier prosecutor Dominic Hockley told jurors the fraudsters targeted a number of high street banks, unlawfully accessing customer accounts and taking their money.

‘In many ways the activities were a wholesale attack on each part of the banking system.

‘These actions undermined the safeguards put in place to protect customers’ money.
‘These actions were carried out by an organised crime gang. They were known to each other and they often worked together to defraud customers.

‘They all shared a criminal purpose and intended what is set out in the indictment, for the banks and customers that bank with them to be defrauded.

‘The defendants were financially motivated and received, or expected to receive, significant financial reward.’

Phones seized from gang members contained messages discussing the recruitment of bank insiders, lists of potential targets and the distribution of the loot among the conspirators.

Mr Hockley explained that once gang members had obtained confidential customer information they used a variety of methods to defraud the banks.

One method involved changing single accounts to joint accounts and adding fraudsters as joint account holders, who could then transfer the cash out.

Another was to change account details on genuine accounts and request a new bank card which would be sent to the criminals’ addresses.

The prosecutor said all this was facilitated by corrupt bank employees, who were given a share of the stolen money.

‘They were all recruited by the organised crime group but they all abused the trust of their employers, Natwest and Santander, as well as the customers whose money and savings they were employed to safeguard.’

Aminoritse, of Robert Street, Camden, admitted three counts of conspiracy to defraud. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Abass, of St Mary’s Road, Nunhead, southeast London, admitted three counts of conspiracy to defraud. He was sentenced to five years and seven months in prison.

Okafor, of Vauxhall Grove, Vauxhall, southwest London, admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud. He was sentenced to four years for his part in the conspiracy.

Jack, of Verde Close, Luton, admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud. He was jailed for three years and nine months.

Odesanya, of Southend Lane, Bellingham, southeast London, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to defraud. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

Khan, of Nunnery Lane, Luton, was given an 18-month community order and ordered to complete 240 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay compensation of £2,325 to Santander, plus £1,200 in costs.
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