Two Nigerians Jailed In UK For Stealing Dead Man’s Identity Card
Two Nigerian men living in Luton have been jailed in the UK following an elaborate scam to steal the identity of a dead British man.
According to the United Kingdom Border Control Agency, Mr. Finest Ifeanyi Arojie, 43, illegally entered the UK in 2005 and the following year, he obtained a copy of the birth certificate of a British man, James Samuel Walters, who died in New York in 1989.
In 2007 Arojie used the birth certificate to obtain a British passport in Mr Walters’ identity, stating that he had lost his previous passport. There was no record of Mr Walters’ death because it occurred outside the UK.
Arojie then used his fake British identity to gain employment as a forklift driver in Dunstable in July 2008.
In April 2009 Arojie sponsored the entry to the UK of a man claiming to be his 16-year-old son and calling himself Bright Walters. The pair lived at Old Bedford Road, Luton.
The scam started to unravel in December 2011 when UK Immigration officers from the criminal and financial investigations team interviewed a woman who claimed that she had been approached about taking part in a sham marriage by an African man using the name James Samuel Walters.
The officers discovered Walters was in Nigeria attempting to obtain visa for two children to reside in the UK and as a result of this investigation, both of these visas were refused.
On 16 December 2011, Arojie, who was travelling using the Walters passport, was stopped by our officers as he arrived at Heathrow airport.
On 11 January 2012 Bright Walters was arrested at his home address, where officers also found his British passport.
While Bright Walters was charged with obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception and possession of a false identity document and remanded in custody, Arojie was charged with 7 offences including fraud and conspiracy to facilitate a breach of the UK’s immigration laws.
