Wales: A university tutor from Nigeria who taught students about computer security and identity theft has been jailed for identity fraud offenses

BBC News:

Eni Oyegoke, 28, held classes at the University of Glamorgan in Pontypridd after getting the job using a false passport.

Originally from Nigeria, he had been living at an address in Cardiff, but has been told he now faces deportation.

He admitted 13 fraud, deception and theft offences at Newport Crown Court.

Prosecutor Tracey Lloyd-Nesling told the court Oyegoke moved to Britain five years ago on a six-month visa.

The court heard that he enrolled at the university in 2005 as a PhD student but was soon given a part-time position at its school of computing.

"One of his roles was to set students tasks giving them a celebrity and then seeing how much they could find out using a computer," said Miss Lloyd-Nesling.

"Often, it was not a very difficult task."

She told the court that after applying to the DVLA for a British driving licence using a false passport number, immigration officers were alerted and began investigating.

The judge heard how his home in Cardiff Bay was raided by officials where a counterfeit driving licence was discovered. The prosecution said he claimed "it was made as part of his thesis".

The investigation also revealed how he had stolen nearly £20,000 on two credit cards he had taken out in the name of his former landlords while they were in Australia.

Leighton Hughes, defending, said Oyegoke had turned to crime to pay his tuition fees after spiralling into debt.

"He is young man who, on the face of it, has gone off the rails," said Mr Hughes.

Mr Hughes also said Oyegoke's girlfriend was pregnant with his baby.

"He made the gross mistake of taking advantage of his knowledge and knowledge of others to gain two credit cards from Egg," he said.

"He is an intelligent man and he has a talent which he used in the wrong direction."

Judge Roderick Denyer told Oyegoke: "One always has sympathy with somebody who desperately wants to advance their prospects in life through the education system and you clearly are a man of some considerable ability.

"I'm afraid when we come to the Egg credit cards, it seems to be good old-fashioned fraud."

Jane Farleigh, the Border and Immigration Agency's newly-appointed director for Wales and the south-west, said: "This case shows that we are working extremely closely with the police and other agencies to catch anyone flouting our laws."

After the case, the University of Glamorgan said Oyegoke had completed a masters degree at another UK university, he had held a British passport and "the necessary genuine qualifications to be eligible for PhD study."

The university said he had "acted, on occasion, as a tutor, a role undertaken by many PhD students", and his PhD, called Intrusion Detection and Network Security, was unrelated to identity fraud.

The university said it had worked with police during their investigation and his details had been removed from its website after his conviction.

Computer lecturer jailed for identity fraud