Fraudster who led high life after stealing £30,000 only has to pay back £1... at 25p per week

Published 20th Oct 2009

Kokobe has now been given four weeks to pay back just £1 because he has no 'recoverable assets'

A train ticket attendant who stole nearly £30,000 has been ordered to pay back just £1 - at the rate of 25p per week.

Fraudster Elvis Kokobe, 28, pocketed customers' cash and then used stolen bank cards to authorise the purchases.

He blew £28,000 on a champagne lifestyle during the 15-month scam while working at Coventry Railway Station.

Kokobe was jailed for 18 months in June but he has now been given four weeks to pay back just £1 because he has no 'recoverable assets'.

British-born Kokobe landed the job serving rail customers in 2005.

Staff became suspicious when he turned up at work 'with a swagger' wearing plush clothes and a new watch.

Managers eventually confronted him in March last year when they spotted him pocketing commuters' cash.

Kokobe was found guilty of five counts of fraud and was jailed for 18 months at Coventry Crown Court in June.

A proceeds of crime hearing last Friday - estimated to have cost taxpayers £700 - failed to re-cover any of his assets.

Recorder James Samson enforced a nominal £1 charge and ordered Kokobe to serve the rest of his sentence.

Ian Speed, prosecuting, said: 'He has lived the criminal lifestyle and benefited in the sum of £27,991 but he has no assets.

'The recoverable amount is therefore £1 to be payable in a month.'

The Taxpayers' Alliance campaigns director Mark Wallace said: 'I would say that this case sends out an appalling message that you can be a fraudster and effectively suffer no financial consequences.

'It's outrageous that any court could think that this is an appropriate punishment or any punishment at all.

'There has to be a better way for the justice system to take back the proceeds of crime.'

A spokesman for West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service said: 'Nominal orders are enforced when the defendant has no assets or no means to pay.

'We do not know where he spent the money but clearly he was enjoying the a lifestyle beyond his means.

'This does not mean he has got away with it. If he comes into money in the future through employment or a big win on the lottery he will have to pay back the rest.'

Fraudster Elvis Kokobe claimed he was 'broke and penniless' when he pleaded guilty to fraud in June this year.

The court heard that he had made around £2,000-a-month - on top of his £15,000 salary - by pocketing notes and change from rail punters.

It is believed that he swiped up to twenty different cloned and stolen bank cards a day to make payments but police do not know how he acquired them.

Kokobe eventually frittered away the second-income on living the high-life - including weekends away at luxury hotels and golf courses.

He did not attend the three-minute long proceeds of crime hearing at Coventry crown court on Thursday but said at an a earlier hearing: 'I've got no money left. It's all gone.

'I'm broke and penniless. I've made a mistake and I regret what I have done.'

When police arrested Kokobe at his rented terraced house in Coventry, West Midlands, there was no trace of the cash because he spent it within weeks of stealing it from hard-up commuters.

Kokobe's former neighbours said they thought he had 'won the lottery' when he started splashing out on designer clothes.

Ron Singh, 43, said: 'He was a fairly quite person who we never saw much but we started to notice him more a couple of years ago.

'He was walking round looking much happier and we thought that he must of won the lottery or something.

'He was wearing designer clothes and sunglasses and going clubbing late at night. I think that he liked golf too and spent more time doing that.

'The houses round here are nothing special so he stood out like a sore thumb with his expensive tastes.'

A spokesman for West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service said: 'We have no idea if the cards he used were cloned, or stolen or both. He has covered his tracks well.'

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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