Nottingham student sentenced for involvement in Depop designer clothing scam

A Nottingham student has pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property and has been served a 12-month community order for his involvement in a Depop scam.

20-year-old Enoch Onojighofia allowed scammers to have parcels sent to his address containing expensive items they had fraudulently bought from Depop sellers, Nottingham Post reports.

In June 2022, Onojighofia took in parcels containing items from designer labels such as Dior, Moncler, and Nike, amassing thousands of pounds for the scammers, who would turn up masked at his flat to collect the parcels.

The prosecutor said the scammers would “purchase” designer items on Depop and ask the sellers to accept payment via Cashapp. They would then send the parcels to Onojighofia’s former address on North Church Street, for which he would receive £20 per delivery.

The police got involved when one seller didn’t receive the money for a £2,700 Dior coat and a Moncler gilet. When the seller contacted the app he was told no such account existed; at least two others were scammed in this way. Police arrested then 18-year-old Onojighofia on June 11th 2022.

Judge James Sampson told Onojighofia: “You are 20 now and have no previous convictions and for some reason you decided to join in this serious criminal enterprise, conning people out of valuable goods.

“No doubt they could ill afford to lose them and your part was relatively limited.”

Onojighofia became involved with the gang after receiving a Snapchat message from someone called Eiayo, asking if he wanted to earn money taking in parcels but was not told about their contents. In his pre-sentence report, Onojighofia said he received around five parcels, but later estimated receiving about 10.

The prosecutor said: “A laptop and mobile phone were seized and there were messages on the phone consistent that he was asking for ‘bread’ saying the items were being dropped off and he was being paid £20 per delivery.”

“He said the people would collect the deliveries from him either from the reception or his door and they would be wearing face masks when they did.”

Onojoghofia’s community order includes 180 hours of unpaid work.

The judge told him: “This is hanging over you now, if you do the work that will be the end of it but if you don’t, this will continue to haunt you.”

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