Nigerian Accountant who assisted sham marriage gang jailed in London
An accountant who helped beneficiaries of an international sham marriage
gang stay in the UK illegally has been jailed for more than 5 years.
Soloman Adekotujo, 58, of Heaton House, Heaton Road, Peckham, produced
fraudulent letters and payslips to the Home Office from European
Economic Area (EEA) nationals, claiming they were exercising their
treaty rights by working at his business. These individuals were in fact
part of a sham marriage ring that enabled non EEA nationals to remain
in the UK illegally.
On 11 March 2013 a jury found Adekotujo guilty of conspiracy to assist
unlawful immigration and fraud following a six-day trial at Woolwich
Crown Court. He was sentenced to five years and six months for the
immigration charge and three months for the fraud charge, to run
concurrently, at the same court on Friday 12 April.
When specialist investigators from the Home Office's South London
immigration crime team raided Adekotujo's businesses - Solomon and Co,
Scul Consulting and Moora Cargo Services - on the Old Kent Road in
October 2012 they found letters of employment and accountancy
documentation for the EEA nationals but no evidence that they had ever
lived in the UK.
Officers linked Adekotujo to the sham marriage gang run by Nigerian
nationals, which arranged for EEA 'brides' and 'grooms' to marry West
Africans in return for cash.
All beneficiaries of the eight 'marriages' arranged by this criminal
network have been identified and steps are being taken to remove them
from the country. Officers in The Netherlands have also arrested alleged
fake brides and grooms and prosecution is ongoing.
The ringleader of the 'fixer' gang, Waheed Salau, of Myrtle Road,
Romford, is currently serving a four-and-a-half year jail sentence after
admitting conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration in April 2012.
Salau's partner, Esther Obatuyi, also of Myrtle Road, was sentenced
alongside him for the same offence.
