'Advance Fee' Fraudster's £788K Scam Smashed

An online conman, who convinced victims all over the world to pay him a total of £788,000 in 'advance fees' for non-existant windfalls, will be senenced in the new year.

Patrick Bomboi Emuh, 54, (pictured) of Bromhedge, Greenwich snared twenty victims in the UK, USA, Germany, Romania, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.

After emailing and cold-calling them Emuh convinced the people they had a lottery win or had received an inheritance and neded to pay fees, taxes and handling charges to release the funds.

He also posed as a lawyer to supposedly help the victims claim the money – for an additional fee.

Some of the victims from abroad were talked into travelling to the UK, where they were met by people posing as businessmen.

Several were shown banks notes they were told were theirs, but were contaminated.

The victims were instructed to pay money up front in order for the cash to be cleaned to "legitimise" it – another ruse to extract more money from them.



The total sum of money Emuh took from his victims was £788,297.



Police began investigating Emuh in 2006 after they found him carrying £10,000 cash.

They seized the money under the Proceeds of Crime Act and financial investigators examined his bank accounts.

They found large sums of money being deposited into his account and officers were able to identify and contact some of the payees, all of whom told the same story about Emuh.

Confronted with this evidence, Emuh told police he had a diesel oil business and the victims were customers in Nigeria.

This was untrue and despite claims that he could provide evidence to prove his story, Emuh never did.

He was convicted of 19 counts of acquiring criminal property and will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on January 8.

Police have already seized £60,000 cash from Emuh and are now applying for a confiscation order from which victims will be compensated.



Accredited financial investigator Doug Ferns, of the Specialist and Economic Crime Command said: "Emuh tricked people into believing they had struck it lucky and when he was caught out he had the audacity to claim that the victims were in fact business customers.

“A thorough investigation of his bank accounts, mobile phones and computer combined with the many witness statements allowed us to see right through his story.



"People like Emuh are driven by greed and because of the potential pay off of a con like this they will go to unbelievable lengths to convince their victim that it is genuine, as Emuh did. 



"If a stranger contacts you saying you have inherited money or won a lottery and must pay fees to access your windfall, do not believe it. Call the police."