Conmen posed as charity workers in dating scam
Bogus diplomats ‘preyed on vulnerable women’
TWO conmen who preyed on vulnerable women in an online dating scam were yesterday given jail sentences totalling five-and-a-half years.
Sidney Ochouba, 40, and Busayo Oladapo, 38, used bogus names to dupe seven victims.
They said they were stranded in Syria while working for the World Health Organisation.
Victims were tricked into sending cash to the “diplomats” to help bring them home.
The women had used dating sites including Plenty More Fish.
Prosecutors said £35,000 was gained from the callous scam. Ochouba, of Glasgow’s Gorbals, and Oladapo, of Govan, were sentenced yesterday at the city’s sheriff court.
They had earlier been convicted of being involved in the fraud as well as acquiring criminal property.
Ochouba, a former architecture graduate, was locked up for 30 months while toilet attendant Oladapo was jailed for three years.
Sheriff Paul Crozier told them: “You, along with others, preyed on a number of women. They were vulnerable and seeking the comfort a relationship could offer them.
Each woman who gave evidence told of their feelings of stupidity, hurt and shame. They acted in good faith to an individual who built up their trust and who they thought needed help.”
Victims included widow Jackie Baillie, 60, who met bogus nutritionist Jack McDud on a dating site. She sent payments totalling more than £7000.
Melanie Kay, 49, sent £12,000 saved to send her son to university. She said: “I felt stupid that someone got one over me this way.”
Judith Hutchison, defending Oladapo, told the court his client had been trying to get “a better life”.