Kingsbury solicitor on the run after �1 million Barclay’s Bank con
Bent laywer duped bank into handing over the money
A BENT solicitor who conned a bank out of �1million has skipped bail and is believed to be living a life of luxury in Nigeria.
Roseanne Tugbobo, of Old Church Lane, Kingsbury, is on the run from a two-and-a-half sentence that was handed down in Southwark Crown Court today (Friday).
The court heard the 50-year-old teamed up with a fake football agent Charles Egbiremolen and used her high street law firm to convince the bank to lend the money to the conman.
Egbiremolen told staff at Barclay’s Bank that he was a super-rich football agent who represented Chelsea stars Michael Essien and Salomon Kalou.
He played the role so convincingly that the bank’s mortgage assessors agreed to loan him �1m to buy a �3m mansion in north London.
But, once the money was paid into Tugbobo’s client account, the pair simply siphoned it away.
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Egbiremolen eventually pleaded guilty to a string of fraud counts and was sentenced to five years in jail.
But despite making an emotional confession to police, Tugbobo subsequently skipped bail, and is now believed to be living a life of luxury of Nigeria.
She had told the police she was suffering from cancer and was a vulnerable single mother-of-three who had been forced into committing the fraud.
The jury took less than an hour to return unanimous guilty verdicts against her.
Passing her sentence to be served on her arrest, Judge Stephen Robbins said: “This of course amounts to a serious breach of trust on the part of an admitted solicitor, because it added an element of respectability and genuineness to a mortgage fraud designed to hoodwink banks and building societies.”
Tugbobo had denied conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.
