Kenyan woman in London court over Sh690m fraud

A Kenyan woman has appeared before a London court charged with money laundering.

Ms Ruth Ayinde-Azeez, 26, appeared before the Southwark Crown Court in Central London on Thursday accused of laundering £6 million (Sh690 million) from a mortgage scam.

She was charged with acquisition, possession or use of criminal proceeds under The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

She faces further charges for assisting another person to retain the benefit of crime.

During the hearing before judge Martin Beddoe, the court was told of how the former care worker funded her luxurious lifestyle with the proceeds of crime by helping her husband launder the profits of a £6 million mortgage scam.

She is said to have lived in a six-bedroom house with 12 plasma television sets and drove a Bentley and Land Rover.

She took holidays in Dubai and the south of France, kept £1.6 million (Sh184 million) in her bank accounts and blew huge sums at expensive bars, the court heard.

Her husband Victor, who has fled Britain, led a mortgage fraud gang which plundered nearly £6 million from London high street banks in six weeks.

He bought 22 houses around South-East London and, with his accomplices, applied for mortgages from the banks, including Bradford and Bingley and Abbey National. Ms Ayinde-Azeez was arrested before she was about to leave the country.