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back to article Cybercrim who fleeced students faces scramble to repay stolen cash

A woman who made £1.2m through cybercrime has been ordered to pay back almost £630,000 accumulated from the hundreds of British students she helped to defraud. Ruth Smith-Ajala, 46, a Nigerian national of Redlands Way, Lambeth, was given a five-year sentence back in December 2013 for her role in stealing £1.2m from British …

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  1. Your alien overlord - fear me

    Hmm, a cushy 5 year free holiday at Her Majesty's pleasure or back to Nigeria where life is pretty tough (to put it politely). And get to keep 630,000 quid. Tricky choice.

    7 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      And (tiresomely so), as a Nigerian national she won't be deported on exit?

      3 0 Reply
    2. sabroni Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      re: a cushy 5 year free holiday at Her Majesty's pleasure

      Hmm, someone's a member of the party.... (be quick, it's only available for another 8 hours!)

      0 0 Reply
    3. werdsmith Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Did you read the article to the end?

      Detective Inspector Pete Ward of the Met's Central Criminal Finance Team said in a statement. "If she doesn’t pay the money by the time she is out of prison, the order will remain and her finances will be scrutinised to ensure she continues to pay up."

      0 0 Reply
  2. Bota

    Nigeria

    Hmmm...why am I not surprised? I say ship her home, strip al assets and never allow her in the country again. Ship her 5 kids, 10 aunts and 20 uncles back with her. People like this make me so friggin angry!

    10 5 Reply
  3. alain williams Silver badge

    What about the other £600k ?

    Stole £1.2m, repay £600k ... what about the other £600k ? Who said that crime does not pay ?

    She has houses that she is letting out - make her sell them. Once she has paid the whole lot - then how about payments as compensation: time lost, aggro, ... ?

    7 2 Reply
  4. Cuddles

    Where's the "scramble"?

    Seven houses, including one in London, will make a hell of a lot more than £630k. Since the proceeds from their sale will be used for the repayment, it doesn't appear she'll need to find any more money at all.

    6 0 Reply
    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Where's the "scramble"?

      > it doesn't appear she'll need to find any more money at all.

      If she owns the houses outright, which the reference to "mortgage fraud" suggests is not the case. Unfortunately any lender probably has first call on the profits of a sale. If they could sell the houses, pay back the people she defrauded first, and then leave her to pay off any outstanding loans, it would be closer to justice.

      5 0 Reply
  5. Richard 26

    "Seven houses, including one in London, will make a hell of a lot more than £630k."

    Undoubtedly, but how much equity she has in them is a different thing.

    1 0 Reply
  6. adam payne

    Take the money, houses and everything else. Let her serve for time and then deport her.

    Then find the rest of the gang and if in this country do the same.

    4 0 Reply
  7. Joey M0usepad Silver badge

    blimey its like the daily mail in here!

    not that i dont agree......

    5 0 Reply
  8. BitDr
    Facepalm

    Punctuation!

    'Cybercrim who fleeced students faces scramble to repay stolen cash"

    There really ought to be some punctuation in that headline. How does one "fleece students faces" without their knowledge? Is it done while they sleep? Who buys this face-fleece? I'm guessing that only those with thick face-fleece were targeted by this miscreant.

    3 1 Reply
    1. benzaholic
      Reply Icon
      Headmaster

      Re: Punctuation!

      My opinion is that the headline makes perfect sense with no punctuation, and I'm a bit of a comma fan.

      If it included an apostrophe after students, THEN we would be discussing the students' faces. Without that apostrophe, the word students is used simply as a plural, not as a singular or plural possessive.

      2 0 Reply
    2. Alistair
      Reply Icon
      Windows

      Re: Punctuation!

      There really ought to be some punctuation in that headline. How does one "fleece students faces" without their knowledge? Is it done while they sleepsheep? Who buys this face-fleece?

      FTFY

      0 0 Reply
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wrong approach?

    Sure, because she obviously has the skills to make this amount of money back quickly, using only honest means.

    /s

    It sounds like they're giving her the choice of "Scam more people now (and maybe not get caught), or definitely go to jail."

    Not a great choice.

    0 0 Reply

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