A Nigerian student has been jailed 19 years for swindling an Australian woman out of $47 000 dollars through an internet scam, the country's anti-graft agency said Tuesday. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said Lawal Adekunle Nurudeen (29) was found guilty by a Lagos high court on 19 charges of obtaining money by false pretence and forgery.
The EFCC said that Nurudeen, a University of Lagos student, met the woman in 2007 over the internet and introduced himself as Benson Lawson, a British engineer working with a multinational company in Nigeria.
The woman (56) told her "penpal" she wanted a husband and Nurudeen, who is married with three children, applied claiming to be a 57-year-old widower.
A few weeks later, Nurudeen called the woman, introducing himself as a doctor and informing her that her "fiance" Benson Lawson had had an accident and needed money for his treatment.
The love-struck woman sent some money. Two weeks later Nurudeen called her, thanked her for her kindness and said he would like to visit her in Australia so that they could consummate their relationship. He asked for cash for the trip.
In all he had swindled the woman of $47 000 dollars before his arrest.
EFCC said Nurudeen was also ordered to reimburse the money he stole.