Pair jailed after dressing up as DPD drivers to reclaim parcels they fraudulently ordered

A pair of con artists dressed up as DPD drivers to reclaim parcels they had fraudulently ordered to people’s houses, a court heard.

Adekoya Adefowora, 38, and Deborah Oyeniyi 23, donned the company's red and grey uniforms before collecting laptops and phones they had ordered to their victim’s homes, having taken out credit in their name.

They arrived at the properties shortly after the real delivery was made to explain that the items had been mistakenly delivered and needed returning and even carried paper work as part of the scam, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

They visited homes across Essex and Suffolk, hitting properties in Colchester, Felixstowe and Ipswich on May 6, 12 and 13 last year, during the height of the first lockdown that saw a huge increase in the number of online deliveries. 

They were later pulled over by police in Brentwood who found DPD uniforms alongside four mobile phones, two laptops, a red iPhone along with labels and paperwork displaying details of four targeted households.

The pair were sentenced for seven counts of fraud by false representation after admitting the offences at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Steven Attridge said they claimed to be retrieving wrongly delivered electronics, which had all been purchased on finance from electrical retailer AO via an untraceable IP address.

He said: "Persons at the addresses were totally unaware the parcels were coming.

"They would take them, and thereafter, in a matter of 20 to 30 minutes, the defendants would appear, dressed as DPD workers, indicating that the goods had been supplied in 

error or delivered to the wrong address."

Mr Attridge said £7,299 worth of the total £8,313 in goods had been recovered, while £17,550 had been applied for in credit.

The court heard how Adefowora's had worked for DPD until being sacked in June 2014 relating to fraudulent activity around the delivery of 49 Tesco mobile phones on his route.

Police found a DPD identity card in his wallet while a further search of his address turned up another DPD uniform and DPD receipt.

Sentencing, Judge Rupert Overbury said: "This was a sophisticated confidence fraud committed over a period of time against a number of individuals, with both of you, I have absolutely no doubt, expecting to make a considerable amount of money."

Adefowora, of Erith, south east London, was jailed for 15 months, while Oyeniyi, of Russell Road, London, was jailed for a year.