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| FACING PRISON: Azu Akpom |
A crooked registrar faces a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty of issuing false birth certificates to a gang of African fraudsters who stole at least £4million from taxpayers over 20 years.
Azu Akpom provided fake certificates to the ringleader of the gang who went on to create false identities for up to 100 children to milk the benefits system.
Croydon Crown Court heard how the Nigerian-born father of three was ultimately trapped by a text message which, despite his denial, showed he knew the gang’s chief conspirator, Ugandan-born Ruth Nabuguzi, 49.
Last year the same court heard how she was at the centre of the scam which also saw her claim to be suffering from HIV and needing costly drugs – yet in reality she sent them back to Uganda to be sold for huge profits.
Supplying the drugs for so many years cost the taxpayer more than £2million. The gang exploited false identities in the fraud relating to accommodation and sub-letting of flats at a cost of £650,000, and various benefits totalling £900,000.
This week 46-year-old Akpom’s role in the scam was exposed as prosecutor Paul Raudnitz told the jury: ‘This case revolves around the making of false identities for children and Azu Akpomas a registrar was at the centre of helping make those identities’.
‘While he denies any knowledge of knowing Ruth Nabuguzi there is an incriminating text message directly from his mobile phone to hers which was found by the investigating authorities.
‘These certificates enabled the gang to make numerous false claims for both child benefits and child tax credits and other allowances’. The court heard how Akpom started to work for the Borough of Newham in East London in 2004 before becoming a registrar in 2006 and a senior registrar a year later.
He was later introduced to Nabuguzi and her gang and began providing false birth certificates for use in their long-running conspiracy.
As a registrar, he had a duty to request confirmation of a birth, with an NHS number from the hospital where the child had supposedly been born. Instead, he simply filled out birth certificates after being given names by the gang.
Staff became suspicious and Akpom became the subject of an internal investigation while the UK Border Agency and police investigated Nabuguzi and her gang.
When she and fellow gang members were arrested in September 2011 a ‘kit bag for fraud’ containing documents and birth certificates was found.
These included five issued by Akpom for false identities – all supposedly ‘born’ earlier that year. A text from his phone to one of Nabuguzi’s six mobiles read: ‘Just remember if anyone asks anything about you and me deny that you know me. I don’t know anyone too . . . so they have nothing’.
Investigators were unable to discover how much Akpom, from Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, had been paid by the gang.
In November, Nabuguzi was jailed for six years while the rest of her gang received sentences totalling 19 years between them.
Akpomdenied misconduct in a judicial or public office and five counts of fraud but it took the jury only 90 minutes to find him guilty of all six charges. The judge refused his request to be allowed to go home before sentencing next week to see his family. He was remanded in custody and refused bail.
Recorder Freya Newbery told Akpom, ‘The unique feature of this case is serious misconduct while in public office and abuse of trust and that is particularly serious’.
The maximum sentence misconduct in a judicial or public office is life imprisonment.
- Daily Mail
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