A Nigerian father-of-three living in Salford has been jailed for his part in swindling more than £80,000 from an American widow in an online dating scam – and will be kicked out of the country when released.
Jonathan Mickey of Goodwood Drive, Salford, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to one count of possession of false identity with improper intent and two counts of possession of criminal property.
The woman parted with the cash after one of Mickey’s associates set up a false identity on an internet dating site.
The man posed as a Canadian oil rigger working off the coast of Scotland in an attempt to dupe the American into falling in love with him and giving away her cash.
Judge Steiger, who sentenced Mickey to 30 months in prison, said: “This was a careful and sophisticated fraud practiced on people in Canada and elsewhere.”
The court heard that Mickey never used the account to communicate with the woman and he only became embroiled in the scam after his associate forced him to repay debts owed to him.
Mickey used a forged Dutch passport with his own photograph on under a false name to open up a business bank account under the name of Prince Larry Services which was registered as a painter, decorator and joiner business in May 2010.
The business did not enjoy success – turning over £0 in revenue and a loss of £570 and by 2012 no tax returns were declared for the business.
The court heard that on further examination of the account there had been several large transactions made in and out of the account.
Another account opened by Mickey saw a total of £32,175 of the victim’s money transferred into it in two separate transactions in the space of a week during June and July 2012.
Mickey denied withdrawing any of the money from the account, despite being pictured on CCTV in the branch around the times they took place.
The court also heard that four more transactions totalling £48,665 took place between June 26 and July 13 of last year.
Initially Mickey was only charged with two of the four transactions which totalled around £29,000, but admitted the extra two at a previous hearing.
Mickey’s defence pleaded with the judge to have mercy on him due to his extenuating personal circumstances.
The court heard that Mickey lives with his girlfriend and three young children. It was claimed that his partner is ill and her stress levels were ‘unbearable’.
She owns a restaurant and has been considering closing the business because she could not cope without Mickey who looked after the children.
Mickey came to the UK in 1998 from Nigeria and in 2004 was convicted of fraud after using aliases including Lawrence David Humphrey.
In his summing up Judge Steiger said that Mickey’s guilty plea could only be seen with minimal praise as it came so late on in the case and that his past conviction must be taken into account.
He sentenced Mickey to four months in prison for possessing false identification and 26 months for possessing criminal property.
Under UK Border Agency laws, as a foreign national offender who has been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of 12 months or more, Mickey will be subject to automatic deportation for his crimes.
Picture courtesy of Colin Smith, with thanks.
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