£433,000 tax fraud: UK court jails Nigerian couple

A Nigerian couple, Luciana and Femi Akanbi, have been jailed in the United Kingdom for orchestrating a large-scale fraud involving the stolen personal data of Transport for London employees, in a case described as the ‘worst’ data breach in the agency’s history.

According to a report by KentLive, the couple were each sentenced to three years and nine months’ imprisonment after defrauding the UK tax authority through false rebate claims.

The report said Luciana Akanbi, 38, who worked in the human resources department of Transport for London, accessed sensitive personal information of her colleagues, including passport details, National Insurance numbers and bank records.

Prosecutors told Woolwich Crown Court that the couple used the data of at least 40 employees to submit 139 fraudulent tax rebate claims to HM Revenue and Customs.

The fraud, carried out between September 2021 and January 2022, resulted in losses of over £433,000 to the public purse, although the total value of claims submitted was close to £650,000.

Delivering judgment, Judge David Miller said the case represented the most severe data breach in the history of the transport authority.

Judge Miller said, “TfL suffered their worst ever data breach. It meant they had to change their systems. Punch