DAILY MAIL
A conman behind a £220,000 parcel scam who won refugee status in the UK from Nigeria after claiming to be gay insists he is bisexual – after having three children with different women since arriving.
Saheed Azeez even married one of the women before having a baby daughter with her.
He will now face an immigration hearing after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and plotting to possess criminal property.
He faces up to six years in jail.
Speaking on the phone from Forest Bank prison, in Salford, where he has already spent 17 months, he told how he had three children, two boys aged seven and six, and a three-year-old girl.
But he insisted he would still be persecuted for his sexuality if he was returned to Nigeria.
‘I’m bisexual and in the country I was born, that is not allowed.
‘I can’t go back, I can’t speak out, I can’t say anything. I was born in an Islamic country, in Kano, Nigeria.
‘If I go back they will send me to jail or stone me to death. There will be people looking for me.’
Bolton Crown Court was told his father and two brothers were killed in 1993 as a result of his dad’s political activism.
He was exploited as a child and teenager before entering a homosexual relationship as an adult. On one occasion he was beaten and tortured.
The court was also told his gay partner – who helped arrange his escape from Nigeria – was later killed for helping him leave the country.
Azeez said he had been working as a delivery man in the UK and other criminals took advantage of him.
He also insisted his partners knew of his sexuality. He said one of his sons lives in Somerset and the other children in the Wigan area.
He was married to the mother of his youngest child.
‘They knew of my situation.
‘I was married in the Islamic way, I don’t think she would want to talk to anyone. She’s not happy with the position, with everything happening now. I’ve not been sentenced yet.
‘When they arrested me I was taking my son to primary school. I had my daughter in the car seat.
‘I am involved in my children’s lives. I don’t have any issues with their mums. But they must move on with their lives. I have let them down, they must have their own freedom.’
Azeez masterminded the £220,000 parcel scam shortly after he arrived in the UK.
He helped to create a network of strangers and used their homes to receive parcels from online sellers who had dispatched their goods before receiving payment.
Azeez would then collect the products, bought on websites including eBay and Facebook Marketplace, and sell them via his brother’s electrical shop in Wigan, before taking a cut and passing on some of the profits to his fellow fraudsters using Bitcoin.
Up to 272 victims lost a total of £220,000 after being persuaded to send out second-hand items, including smart phones and cameras, they were hoping to sell.
The scam took place between September 2020 and November 2021 after Azeez, a former Yodel delivery driver who had set up his own removals company, began providing ‘delivery services’ for online fraudsters who used Nigerian phones to dupe Facebook Marketplace and eBay users.
The court heard that police launched their investigation into his activities after reports of a large and unusual volume of parcels being sent to addresses in north Manchester. The addresses were all linked to Azeez and detectives eventually tracked him down as he was dropping one of his young sons off at primary school.
As he was about to be detained he hid three smartphones that had been used in the scam inside the boy’s school bag, where they were found by a teaching assistant. Andy Evans, prosecuting, said: ‘The phones were accessed and interrogated and clearly showed his role in the online frauds.
‘It seems these fraudsters would contact victims in the UK who were selling consumer electronics online on various platforms including eBay, Facebook Marketplace and WhatsApp – and victims were persuaded to provide their items prior to payment being made.’
