Two men from Birmingham, who were part of a gang which stole the identities of dead babies and then plundered bank accounts set up in their name, have been jailed.
The gang of three, including a woman from Cardiff, stole 44 separate identities over 18 months to set up 100 bogus bank accounts. They then went on to plunder £22,500 from the accounts, largely in the form of generous overdrafts attached to them.
Ring leader John O'Jomo, 25, of Avoca Court, Cheapside, Birmingham, was jailed for four years at Swansea Crown Court.
Michael Olusanya, 23, of the same address, was jailed for three years for the part he played in the complex fraud.
His partner Hamda Khahin, 22, of City Lofts, Crwys Road, Cardiff, was jailed for two years.
All three had previously admitted a single joint charge of conspiracy to commit fraud.
The trio operated in England and throughout south Wales, ordering up birth certificates on-line of people who had died years before.
Jim Davis, prosecuting, explained that the gang targeted those who would have been the same age as themselves had they not died.
Among their victims was John Dempsey Hamilton, a two-year-old from Neath, south Wales, who died 16 years ago. Gaynor Davies, 43, his mother, sobbed silently as she listened to the facts of the case in court. Later she spoke of the "terrible heart-rending misery" she had suffered as a result of the case.
The court heard the trio were caught after DVLA staff in Swansea grew suspicious of multiple driving licence applications from the same addresses.
The gang used birth certificates they managed to get from the internet to apply for licences then used as proof of identity to open bank accounts.
