Student accepted parcels for designer clothes scammers
HE TOOK IN GOODS WORTH THOUSANDS – FOR £20 A TIME
A UNIVERSITY student allowed scammers to deliver expensive designer clothes they had fraudulently bought from victims to his Nottingham address.
Nottingham Crown Court heard how Enoch Onojighofia took in goods worth thousands of pounds from names such as Dior, Moncler and Nike for the online fraudsters.
After his arrest, the then-18year-old told police that the gang behind the conspiracy, which is yet to be caught, would turn up in masks at the flats where he lived, take away the high-value clothing and pay him just £20 per drop.
Imposing a 12-month community order, Judge James Sampson said: “You are 20 now and have no previous convictions and for some reason you decided to join in this serious criminal enterprise, conning people out of valuable goods.
“No doubt they could ill afford to lose them and your part was relatively limited.”
Matt Hayes, prosecuting, said the scammers were operating in 2022 on a buying-and-selling website called Depop.
He said they would contact sellers of designer goods and then ask them to accept payment on a website called Cashapp and send the clothing to Onojighofia’s then address at Shakespeare House in North Church Street.
The prosecutor said the operation was all a ruse and one customer sent a £2,700 Dior coat and a Moncler gilet but when he didn’t receive the money via the app and contacted it, he was told no such account existed and the police became involved.
Mr Hayes said at least two more sellers were scammed in the same way, sending Air Jordan trainers worth hundreds of pounds to the defendant’s address.
He said: “Deliveries were seized from the address and he was arrested on June 11, 2022.
“A laptop and mobile phone were seized and there were messages on the phone consistent that he was asking for ‘bread’ saying the items were being dropped off and he was being paid £20 per delivery.
“He said he had been sent a message on Snapchat from someone called Eiayo who asked him if he wanted to earn some money taking in parcels and he did not ask what was in the parcels.
“He estimated he had taken in around 10 deliveries but in his presentence report he says it was more like five.
“He said the people would collect the deliveries from him either from the reception or his door and they would be wearing face masks when they did.”
Onojighofia, now of Broad Street in the city centre, pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property.
As part of the community order, the judge ordered the defendant to carry out 180 hours unpaid work, warning him: “This is hanging over you now.
“If you do the work that will be the end of it, but if you don’t, this will continue to haunt you.”
Once the judge indicated that he would follow the probation services’ recommendation in the presentence report an officer had prepared for his client, Onojighofia’s barrister, Dominic Shelley, said he had nothing to add in mitigation.