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| Rita Ogunkunle (left) and her boyfriend Michael Adebambo (right), 46, registered the baby as theirs at Bromley Civic Centre, UK |
A Nigerian mother allowed a British couple
to register as her new baby’s parents in bid to get free NHS care and
secure a UK passport for the child, a court heard.
Oluwaseun Adenubi, 30, also pleaded guilty
to fraud by false representation after using the passport of her
friend, Rita Ogunkunle, 32, to obtain free medical care after giving
birth to Moses.
Ogunkunle and her boyfriend Michael
Adebambo, 46, registered the baby as theirs at Bromley Civic Centre the
following day and have now pleaded guilty to giving false information.
Staff at Farnborough’s Princess Royal
University Hospital realised the medical records of Ogunkunle, who had
received acne treatment, conflicted with the patient claiming to be her.
“The probation service are there to report
what they have been told and they say they don’t believe a word of it
and neither do I,” added the judge. Prosecutor Alexandra Bushell told
the court:
Prosecutor Ms Alexandra Bushell told the
court: “Maybe there was a motivation to secure the nationality of
the
child as a British citizen and free NHS treatment.
“After the baby was born on June 20 staff
realised something was not right because Ogunkunle has severe scarring,
which the baby’s mother did not have and there were two different blood
types for the same patient.”
Adenubi was granted a family visit visa
which allowed her to stay in the UK for up to six months and claimed
that she found Ogunkunle’s passport on a bench, Croydon Crown Court
heard.
But when Ogunkunle was arrested in August, she claimed Adenubi took her passport after moving into her spare room.
The couple have now fallen out with Adenubi over the conflicting claims about the passport.
Ms Bushell said: “She admitted falsely
registering the birth of the baby and said she had been introduced to
Adenubi by a friend of her mother’s and took pity on her because she was
pregnant and had no friends.
“She told police she was angry at Adenubi using her identity and tried to beat her to it by registering the child.
“[Adebambo] said his girlfriend asked him
to go to the register office to register a birth and said she told him
she did not want another woman to use her identity.
“He said he did it out of love for his girlfriend and was very remorseful.
“[Adenubi] claimed she was fleeing a
violent partner in Nigeria and claimed to have no family here and no
contact with her family in Nigeria.
“She said she arrived with nowhere to go
and met a Nigerian man at the airport and others via a church, but had
no details of those she stayed with.
“She claimed to have found Ogunkunle’s passport on a bench and only used it to get free medical services.”
The offences, contrary to the 1911 Perjury Act, carry a maximum sentence of seven years ‘penal servitude.’
Judge John Tanzer said: “The probation
service think this is a Nigerian plot to use the ‘International Health
Service’ and then take further advantage.”
All three were bailed until a date to be fixed.
Source: Punch
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