Four women on Match.com thought they had found Mr. Right (Adewale Adewole, a Nigerian man based in the UK) but they weren't lucky.
They gave him their hearts and money only to get heartache and embarrassment in return.
The fraudulent heart breaker is now facing jail time after admitting to four charges of fraud.
The married father of two allegedly scammed the women out of almost £100,000 after pretending to be a Royal Marine on Match.com, named 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 of an actual Royal Marine Commando called Joshua McGowan, as his display picture.
Sources say 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 designer 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:
“‘Adewale told the women that on a trip to Africa he was the victim of a crime and needed money. The crime meant he could not access his own funds.
He said they would get their money back and would be sent letters from the World Health Organisation to show that he would be able to pay them.
These letters were sent, but from an M30 Manchester postmark. He also sent them links to websites which, when logging in with details he gave them, appeared to show that he had a huge bank balance and would eventually be able to pay them back.
One woman was asked to pay for a hotel for him. When she rang the number he gave her for the hotel, they also confirmed the information and she agreed to pay it.
She later received a cheque addressed to him for £35,000 to prove he had money, but this was later discovered to be a stolen cheque forged in his own handwriting.
Over a number of months each woman transferred significant sums of money via bank accounts and Western Union moneygrams and sent items to the defendant’s home address. They bought electronic items, took out credit cards and loans and bought clothes from Next. “
When police searched his house in 2012, they found a digital camera, which had been purchased by one of his victims. It contained pictures of the accused, along with his wife and children. They also found several SIM cards in his wallet, which contained the women’s contact information.
He was also in possession of two Blackberry phones which had three different email accounts linked to the two Match.com accounts. In addition, £4,500 was found under his bed. He was subsequently arrested.
However, Adewale has denied the allegations, and has blamed the fraud on his flatmate Samson Ajayi. He told police that Ajayi had told him to help him transfer money to his relatives. 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 did not 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 do not know where Samson is at the moment. He travels a lot. I have no idea about the details of this fraud. I didn’t even know how many victims there were.
But I pleaded guilty because if I had not let my bank account or flat be used, these women would not have suffered in the way that they did.
Samson said he was expecting some money. He said he had no bank accounts 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.
The court hearings are still ongoing.
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