A Nigeria man, Adewale Adewole(pictured above) based in the UK, is currently facing jail time after admitting to four-count charges of fraud.
According to Daily Mail, the married father of two allegedly scammed women of almost £100,000 after pretending to be a Royal Marine on Match.com- a dating site. His name in the site was Timmy Francis, who owned an orphanage in Africa.
On one of his profiles, he had the nickname "Charismatic Brit" and on the other, "To live and love". He claimed he was looking for love.
Adewole is said to have used a picture of an actual Royal Marine commando called Joshua McGowon, as his profile picture.
He told the women he had been robbed at his Orphanage and so they sent him money and paid his bills. Unknown to them, Adewole was diverting the money into his wife's bank account. He also spent the money on expensive clothes, ipads and TVs.
Investigations revealed that whenever he set up dates with the women, he would never show up.
Prosecutor, Charlotte Brandon told the court that, over a number of months, each woman transferred significant sums of money via bank accounts, Western Union and Moneygrams and sent items to the defendant's home address.
However, Adewole has denied the allegations and blamed the fraud on his flat mate, Samson Ajayi. He also claims that he vaguely remembers using Match.com
"The fraud was Samson's idea. I got involved because i had a few financial difficulties at the time. I didn't speak with the complainants. I did not know money was being sent to Nigeria but i knew it was being sent to my bank account and my wife's bank account."
"I don't know where Samson is at the moment. He travels a lot. I have no idea about the details of his fraud. I didn't even know how many victims there were. But i pleaded guilty because if i hadn't let my bank account or flat to be used, these women would have suffered in the way that they did."
"Samson said he was expecting some money. He said he had no bank account to receive the money so i wanted to help him. He was owing me rent at the time and this was the only way he could pay me" he said.
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