Organised Crime Group who defrauded major phone companies out of over £400k have been jailed for a combined total of 11 years.

Four people who pled guilty to defrauding Vodafone, EE, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse out of £429,304 appeared at Portsmouth Crown Court on Friday 8 March and have been jailed for a combined total of 11 years.

Operation Waterspout was a Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary investigation into an Organised Crime Group who were involved in high value commercial fraud. The fraudsters used stolen personal details of existing customers from all over England and Wales to take out new phone contracts and obtain expensive mobile phones and similar items such as Apple Watches and iPads.

• Oluwadamilola Bolaji, 32, of Black Eagle Drive in Gravesend, Kent, admitted his part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £145,000. He has been jailed for six years and three months.
• Taofeeq Balogun, 30, of no fixed address in Basingstoke admitted his part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £25,000. He has been jailed for three years.
• Taiwo Agusto, 43, of Osbourne Road in Dartford, Kent admitted his part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £3,000. He has been jailed for one year and nine months.
• Carriba Johnson, 31, of Nelson Square in Southwark, London also admitted her part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £2,500. She has been given a suspended sentence of 24 months imprisonment.

Abidemi Adegbite, 56, of Bennett Castle Lane in Dagenham, Essex, admitted his part in the fraud conspiracy to the value of £190,000 and is due to appear for sentencing at a later date.

Between the April 2019 and March 2020, as part of a nationwide fraud, Bolaji, Adegbite, Balogun, Agusto and Johnson stole mobile phone customers details, used fake ID and fake documents to impersonate those customers, and visited mobile phone stores to gain expensive mobile phones and other devices. This resulted in a loss of almost £430k for phone companies Vodafone, EE, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse.

The fraud series came to light after a Hampshire resident reported that between Friday 14 February 2020 and Wednesday 19 February 2020, four mobile phone accounts had been opened up in his name without his permission or knowledge. EE contracts had been taken out in the Fareham and Waterlooville Carphone Warehouse stores and phones where also taken out in O2 and Vodafone stores.

Hampshire Police contacted EE who found the fraud involving this resident’s details were part of a series of frauds which were all linked to 9 main handsets.

As part of the investigation, during searches of the group’s homes, many forged documents were seized; such as fake passports, bankcards, bank statements, utility bills and stolen driving licences. 

Seized bank statements showed substantial amounts of money going through their accounts without a legitimate source of where it came from, and many of the seized items were shown to have been used in the fraud to obtain mobile phones, linking together by cell site data, sharing SIMS going into handsets, and also by bank transactions between themselves.

Five high value watches and over £40,000 in cash were also found and seized.

176 phone company customers had their details used for 602 fraud transactions, but did not experience any financial loss.

DC Owain Davies from the Hampshire Police Economic Crime Team said “This investigation involved extensive analysis of a huge amount of financial documentation in order to gather the evidence needed to put these offenders before the court.

“I hope that these results send a clear message to those who commit fraud that their actions won’t go unnoticed and that this type of behaviour will be investigated fully.”

If you have been a victim of fraud or cybercrime, you can report it to Action Fraud, any time of the day or night, using their online reporting tool. Reporting online is quick and easy. The tool will guide you through simple questions to identify what has happened and their advisors are available 24 hours a day to give you help and advice should you need it.

Reporting fraud and cyber crime | Action Fraud

You can also report to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040 Monday to Friday (8am - 8pm).

If you need to contact us, you can do so by calling 101, or online via Report | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary

You can also report incidents anonymously, by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or by visiting their website below.

Independent UK charity taking crime information anonymously | Crimestoppers (crimestoppers-uk.org)