Nigerian Woman Jailed For Lying That She Was Homeless And Claiming £114K Benefits In UK

A Nigerian woman identified as Olusola Owoeye will be spending the next two years in jail in the United Kingdom after being found guilty of falsely claiming over £114,000 after saying she was homeless while renting out her own house.

Naijaparry reports that the 47-year-old single mother-of-three bought her own home before renting it out with a fraudulent mortgage – charging tenants up to £820 a month.

She then approached a local council claiming she had been made homeless so as to be given a flat.

She pocketed more than £114,000 over five years, until she was nabbed after one of her tenants she charged as much as £820 a month made a complaint at the council.

During her trial, the court heard that Owoeye first came to the UK from Nigeria in 2002. She then made a fraudulent mortgage application, claiming she was working in the software industry and earning £41,000 a year.

This allowed her to buy a home in Erith, south-east London, for £156,000 in June 2008.

She moved out four years later and lived with a friend. In 2013 she approached Bexley Council for support, claiming to be homeless.

She told staff that she had been evicted by a landlord, and was re-housed in Dartford and then Crayford. But her lies were uncovered in January last year when the tenant at her Erith home approached the council to make a complaint.

Owoeye was found guilty of three charges of fraud following a four-day trial at Woolwich Crown Court last month.

She was subsequently jailed for two years by Judge Jonathan Mann QC, who told her: