A West Yorkshire jewellery firm was conned out of £160,000 by a fraudster who posed as a diamond trader - and today he's been ordered to pay back the cash.

Babatunde Giwa is behind bars serving a sentence of four and a half years after being found guilty of fraud and money laundering by a jury at Manchester Crown Court in 2019.

Today Gowa, 43, of Lorton Close, Middleton, has been ordered to pay back the money or face a further two years behind bars, the MEN reports.

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He was involved in a scam that convinced Pugata Ltd, based in Batley, to transfer £159,974.87 to a bank account controlled by him.

The jewellery wholesaler agreed to pay the money in exchange for diamonds from Deblinger Diamonds, to be used in the manufacture of jewellery.

Babatunde Giwa

His 2019 sentencing hearing heard Giwa and other unknown criminals were behind the 'sophisticated' fraud, which involved sending fraudulent emails to each company, pretending to be the other.

Staff from Pugata had dealt with Deblinger for many years, and believed they were sending the sum to the correct account.

But fraudsters were able to intercept and 'hijack' their email conversation, in which the two companies were discussing the deal.

The scammers then sent Pugata an email purporting to be from Deblinger, claiming that they were having bank problems and that they needed payment to be made in pounds rather than dollars.

The fraudsters' email address had one letter different than the actual Deblinger email address.

The alarm was raised three weeks later, when Deblinger contacted Pugata Ltd, requesting payment, and the fraud was reported.

Just three days after the money was sent to the account held by Giwa, he purchased four Rolex watches, three worth £8,950 and one worth £5,000.

Giwa has three months to pay back £176,622.40 or face an additional two years in jail.

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Financial Investigations Manager Ben Evans, from the Economic and Cyber Crime Section at GMP said: "We're pleased with today's ruling - and hopefully this sends a powerful message to fraudsters, that criminal actions do have severe consequences.

"While Giwa is already in prison, and facing the prospect of a longer sentence if the money is not returned, ensuring any criminal gains are not available to him upon release really drives home the message that not only will we do everything in our power to secure a conviction for these types of crimes, but you will have to pay it back.

"He was part of a sophisticated scam, that caused a significant amount of distress for those involved. These are not victimless crimes. I would like to thank the victim in this case for their patience and I hope this result brings to close a difficult period for them.

"While we are pleased with today's result, we are aware that fighting fraud is a relentless task. We will continue to work diligently to remove criminal proceeds from the hands of those who seek to profit from criminality, and I'd like to thank the public for continuing to support our work by reporting fraud, and sharing information. If you see something, or suspect something is wrong, tell us, and we can do something about it."
