Africans in Diaspora – A Nigerian Jailed for £2.7million Lottery Scam in the UK

Osa Odia is jailed for lottery scam amounting to £2.7million. The former deportee who returned to Britain after being married to a British nurse has been in the center of several financial crimes.

According to daily-mail  Osas Odia, 33, was booted out of the UK in 2005 after immigration officials discovered he was using a forged stamp in his passport to work. However, he was issued a Visa and allowed to return on marriage grounds after marrying a British nurse.

Upon returning  the management graduate joined a group of Nigerian fraudsters who sent thousands of letters to people across the world informing  them they had won millions on the lottery. The scam letters told readers they needed to send some money to access their huge windfall.

One of the victims by the name Betty McClellan who is  62 responded by wiring £264,000 to the fraudsters to release her ‘lottery win’. When it never arrived, Mrs McClellan was shot dead by her husband Hersey McClellan, 63, in their Los Angeles home in 2010. He then turned the gun on himself to end their miserable situation with a suicide.

Meanwhile  an elderly woman living in Bristol lost £312,000 after she wrongly believed she had won £1.8million on the Australian lottery. Prosecutor Andrew Evans said the loss of the money had a devastating impact on the Bristol woman. ’She was buying a new home and intended to settle the balance from the winnings she was expecting,’ he told Croydon Crown Court. ’She is now living in sheltered accommodation and feels vulnerable and extremely embarrassed and her family has lost their inheritance.’

Police have traced 13 victims worldwide, who each lost an average of £207,000, after they became convinced they were due huge pay-outs. Odia’s role in the conspiracy was to launder some of the money which was sent by the victims through three bank accounts in his name.

Victim: Betty McClellan, 62, wired £264,000 to the fraudsters to release her ‘lottery win’. When it didn’t arrive, she was shot dead by her husband in their Los Angeles home in 2010. He then turned the gun on himself (See Betty’s picture below)

The Nigerian pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder criminal property and was jailed for two years on Friday. Odia, of Erith, south London, had been allowed to finish his degree before he was sentenced.

Judge Jeremy Gold QC told him: ‘You are a man of some ability and you have just completed a degree and I hope that means you will not be tempted to return to this sort of offending.

‘You played a full part in laundering the proceeds of a sophisticated fraud.’

His lawyer Paul Brill said: ‘He is alarmed and upset by the nature of the fraud and did not realize people’s life savings were being taken so callously in the way they were. ’His previous conviction was for a false stamp in his passport that allowed him to work. He is not workshy and has a strong work ethic.’

It is understood that Odia will be allowed to stay in Britain when he is released because of his marital status. The plot’s ringleaders, who spent the money on property, were jailed at an earlier hearing for conspiracy to defraud.

Obinnam Nwokolo, 37, of Erith, was jailed for six years and four months and student Uchechhukwu Onuoha, 40, also of Erith, was jailed for five years and two months.