Dagenham fraudster’s £79,000 online spending spree ends in jail
Adeshola Adegite - Credit: Archant
A fraudster who went on a online spending spree ordering £79,000 worth of goods from retailer Next has been jailed for 18 months.
Adeshola Adegite, 40, of Coopers Close, Dagenham, opened 411 online Next accounts over the course of a year and a half using a variety of identities, telephone numbers and email accounts.
The unemployed, married father-of-four would order clothes, electrical items and home furnishings for next-day delivery to other peoples’ homes across the whole of London, usually those belonging to the elderly.
He would then monitor the delivery to see if it had been signed for or dropped at another location, such as behind a garden gate.
If challenged by the person who signed for the order, Adegite would produce a false Next identification card and convince them the delivery address had been mistaken.
On average he would open around three or four online accounts a week.
He was arrested by Essex Police in November 2012 after a local resident reported a suspicious male removing an item from a shed.
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Initially he was charged with four offences, but the extent of his activity came to light and a further 35 offences were added.
Adegite pleaded guilty to the charges and was jailed at Basildon Crown Court on Tuesday, April 30.
Investigating officer DS Richard Evans said: “Adegite is a prolific offender whose online fraud profited him to the value of £79,000.
“He is now behind bars and will have to pay back the value of the goods that he fradulently and so greedily took.”
A Next spokesperson said: “We worked closely with the Metropolitan Police Service and Essex Police on this case and have since reviewed all of our online security procedures and made the appropriate changes to try to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
