Nigerian illegal immigrant benefits cheat is spared jail for her SECOND fraud conviction and says the £50,000 she falsely claimed was to pay off people smugglers who got her into Britain
A Nigerian illegal immigrant has avoided jail despite falsely claiming £50,000 in benefits to pay off the people smugglers who got her into Britain. Linda Okungowa, 36, of Sheffield, who arrived in the UK on a false passport 12 years ago, claimed the money in destitution and child benefits despite working under false identities. But the mother-of-three received a suspended sentence in an ‘amazing display of mercy’ after it emerged she had support from a church which was protecting her from committing more crime. The decision by Judge Simon Lawler QC came five years after Okungowa was sent to prison for eight months for using false documents to obtain work while claiming £70,000 in benefits. Okungowa arrived in Britain believing she would be able to train as a doctor, but instead became entrenched in a mounting debt cycle with the traffickers who helped her get in. She said the smugglers kept increasing the amount they said she owed them and she was left s...