The revealing story of how a Nigerian woman who is seeking asylum in UK, used a British woman's identity to have a baby, and she's refused to pay back.
A 30-year old Nigerian mother, Oluwaseun Adenubi, has been found guilty of using a British woman’s identity to give birth on the NHS, and living on state handouts in London. She used the passport of Rita Ogunkunle, to obtain free medical care during the delivery of her son, Moses.
She then allowed 32-year old Ogunkunle, and 46-year old partner Michael Adebambo, to register as Moses’s parents to get him free NHS care and a UK passport.
Judge John Tanzer described the case as ‘a Nigerian plot to use the “International Health Service” and then take further advantage’.
Adenubi came to London when pregnant in 2014 on a family visit visa, which allowed her to stay for up to six months.
But despite overstaying her visa and being handed an eight-month suspended prison sentence for fraud, Adenubi is still in the UK. She has not repaid a penny of the £3,500 it cost to deliver her baby, and she continues to receive free NHS care for herself and her son, now 1.
The mother of one lives in a two-bedroom semi-detached house paid for by the taxpayer in an east London suburb, receiving around £9,000 a year in state handouts.
Suspicions were raised in spring last year when Adenubi registered at Farnborough’s Princess Royal University Hospital. Staff noticed that the new patient, with documents naming her as Rita Ogunkunle, did not tally with NHS records for the woman of that name.
They also realised her blood type did not match what they had on record, so asked her to be re-tested. But the real Ogunkunle allegedly went in Adenubi’s place, so the new blood test matched the original record. When Adenubi gave birth, she needed a Caesarean section, which involved a blood transfusion.
Luckily, her blood type was tested before the procedure and she was given the correct type – but this led to more confusion.
After Moses was born on June 20 last year, staff questioned her about the mix-up and Adenubi confessed that she had lied.
Last night, she told the DailyMail she ‘can see why people are annoyed’, adding: ‘I know what I have done is wrong … I plan to pay it back. Obviously I’m trying to sort everything with my papers and when I do get a job, I’ll only be able to pay it back in bits, but I will.’
The asylum seeker, who has no family in the UK, is not allowed to work here until her refuge is granted.
When she arrived in Britain, Adenubi ‘went from hospital to hospital’ trying to get treatment, she said, but was rejected by staff who told her she was not eligible. She said she ‘had to’ give birth in a hospital so decided to use someone else’s identity.
The Nigerian said she fled her home country because her son’s father abused her.