Southwark Crown Court heard how Ruth Ayinde-Azeez, Isaac Matthews, David Hunter and Jason Mercer conducted their lucrative fraud by targeting a number of properties across the UK, providing false mortgage applications for them and using the loans to fund luxurious lifestyles.
Another member of the group, Anthonia Akinyele who pleaded guilty to her part in the fraud, awaits sentencing. One member of the gang, former part-time care worker, Ayinde-Azeez, claimed she knew nothing of the fraud but was found guilty of money laundering offences on the 10 March.
The other four defendants pleaded guilty to various money laundering offences and conspiracy to defraud charges at earlier hearings.
Ayindee-Azeez was living an opulent lifestyle with the proceeds of the fraud. She was in the process of buying a five-bedroom house in Hertfordshire worth £2.1million and had already put down a £100,000 cash deposit on it.
The house was kitted out with 13 flat screen televisions, expensive 'Bang and Olufson' home entertainment systems and a home gym and sauna. She owned high value cars such as a Bentley CTC and a Land Rover Discovery worth in total £190,000 and frequently stayed at top hotels in luxurious locations around the world.
Police seized some of these items under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
Following a proactive, intelligence-led operation by the MPS Fraud Squad in 2007, with assistance from Hertfordshire Constabulary, officers discovered that Ayinde-Azeez was involved in the scam.
She received payments of over £1.5million into her bank account which she sent to various associates in Dubai and she also owned a 20% share in a brokerage business that played a significant role in the fraud.
The brokerage business, named M Solutions and Financial Ltd, passed false mortgage applications to a solicitors firm and once the mortgage was approved by a financial body, the money would be sent to the solicitors client account and then on to two business accounts controlled solely by Akinyele and Matthews.
Their businesses, 'Isaac and Isaacs' and 'Zikkito', have now been dissolved and financial enquiries revealed that over £6million went through the accounts during the six week fraud.
Akinyele and Matthews dispersed the money to all those involved in the fraud either to be laundered abroad for further use in their scam or as payment for their criminal work. Matthews was arrested in February 2008 at a Holiday Inn in Dartford and police seized one Rolex watch and one Gucci watch from him under POCA.
Akinyele was arrested at her home address in ChathamKent on the same day. Police arrived at Ayinde-Azeez's home address, Sandlewood Close, Barnet, Hertfordshire on 15 May 2008.
She was found attempting to make a quick getaway to France with her car loaded up with possessions. She was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and transferring money out of the UK and was charged the following day.
Mercer and Hunter were puppets in the fraud. Their role was to allow the others to use their details on the mortgage applications and pay the loans off for a couple of months via direct debit.
They then cancelled those direct debits and were paid huge sums of money for their troubles. They were both arrested at their home addresses by officers from Hertfordshire. On interview Hunter claimed that his identity had been stolen and he had no involvement. He later changed his story and pleaded guilty.
Detective Constable Terry Lambert from the Economic and Specialist Crime Command said:
"This was a meticulously planned fraud with involvement from a number of different criminals using seemingly legitimate businesses to launder huge amounts of money in a very short space of time.
"There is no doubt that these companies never saw genuine business profit and were only set up to facilitate this scam.
"The luxurious lifestyles they were living shows a complete disregard for the law and it also makes Ayinde-Azeez's defence that she did not know anything about the laundered money laughable.
"We will now be looking to confiscate any assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act from those convicted."
