UK: Woman invents 18 children

Hot bedding? Hanging them up against the wall at night? And how could she possibly sit them all around the same table or, for that matter, TV?

And how, they wondered, did Caockmari Omoike, a Swedish national with links to The Gambia, also known as Nyima Njai, manage to conceive and give birth to so many?

Suspicions were aroused when tax credit claims were received in each of the two names, from different addresses but containing details which cross referenced. Each of the claims amounted to GBP940 - per week.

The claims had been made by Caockmari Omoike of Lansdown Road, Crumpsall and Nyima Njai of Woodlands Road, Crumpsall. The investigation teams found that Omoike and Njai were one and the same person. Omoike was originally arrested by Greater Manchester Police on 9 June 2006 at a flat on Lansdown Road to face trial for fraudulent tax credit claims totalling over £23,900. But Omoike went on to evade her court summons for several months and finally appeared in January 2008.

Sentencing her, HH Judge Ensor sent her to jail for 12 months and ordered her to be deported at the end of her sentence describing her as a "'genuine and serious threat to public policy and the public purse.' Joanne Pennington, HMRC Senior Investigating Officer added: "This case shows that the defendant deliberately claimed tax credits she was not entitled to. HMRC investigators found no evidence of any children and discovered multiple identities had been used in this crime."

From the end of January 2006, Omoike began to claim Child Tax Credit gradually increasing her claims to include 18 children in total using two identities for herself.For each imaginary family she created nine children with the same or similar names and in some cases the same fake birth dates. HMRC investigators found that Omoike had made over 200 telephone calls to the Tax Credit Helpline amending the size of her families. She was first arrested in June 2006 and during searches of her single room rented flat in Manchester: - no evidence of children was found; - multiple tax credit award notices were seized in the names Omoike and Njai; - it was discovered that a postal redirection existed in the names of Omoike and Njai to redirect post to a PO box in Gambia; - multiple identity cards were seized in the names Omoike and Njai; - there was evidence of multiple wire transfers of money to the Gambia; and - an unused return air ticket to Gambia was found dated for a future date. During interviews Omoike admitted her fraud but she subsequently went on the run before her first Magistrates court appearance in Manchester. Investigators traced her to a number of addresses in Northern Ireland. In Armagh she was issued with a court summons to appear back in Manchester. She failed to appear again and a bench warrant for her immediate arrest was issued. Police trying to execute the arrest warrant discovered that Omoike had next moved to Cardiff. Welsh police officers finally arrested Omoike on 27 October 2007. She appeared before Manchester Magistrates on 29 October 2007, and was remanded in custody to appear before Manchester Crown Court in January 2008. Omoike pleaded guilty to 11 counts of Tax Credit Fraud on 10 January 2008 and three counts of Housing Benefit fraud.