Gang stole IDs of dead babies to siphon cash

POLICE in Swansea have hit out at a shocking identity fraud which forced a Neath mother to relive the grief of losing her child 16 years ago.

Detective Constable Tyrone Peach said a lot of hard work had gone into prosecuting the three criminals, who will be sentenced on Friday at Swansea Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud.

The trio stole 44 children's identities from genealogy websites and used them to successfully apply for birth certificates from a Government website.

They would then use the birth certificates to apply for a provisional driving licence which, when issued, would be used to open student bank accounts with £500 or £1,000 overdrafts.

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Kolajo Ojomo, aged 25, his wife Hamda Khalin, aged 22, and Michael Olusanya, aged 23, would siphon an overdraft before moving on to the next identity.

One of the identities they stole was toddler John Dempsey Hamilton, whose mother, Gaynor Davies, lives in Crynant, near Neath.

DC Peach told the Post: "It was callous. They had no regard for the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, the family (of John) are upset.

"It is satisfying to apprehend these defendants. A lot of people did a lot of hard work on this job."

An angry Mrs Davies told last night's X-Ray programme: "My son fought so hard for his life and now I feel they've taken that away from him. He was two years and four months old when he died. He was born prematurely and had a lot of problems, he was in special care for the first six months. They didn't expect him to live when he was born. But he did, he was a fighter. He'd be 18 now. I feel I've regressed to when he died, it's brought everything flooding back."

Suspicions about the fraud were raised last February by Swansea DVLA staff, who spotted multiple applications for driving licences were being made from a handful of addresses.

They notified the police, who arrested the defendants, from Cardiff and Birmingham, last October.

Mrs Davies said she hoped the trio would be jailed. She added: "I feel angry towards them because they obviously don't understand the consequences this has on families. To them, it's a piece of paper. To me, they've stolen my son."

richard.youle@swwmedia.co.uk