A 32-year-old man from West Yorkshire has been jailed for more than 6 years for the part he played in a blackmail plot that targeted an Isle of Wight man, as well as a £160,000 fraud against a wealthy man from Gloucestershire.
On the afternoon of 5th November last year, Kwaku Achampong of Chantry Road, Wakefield travelled more than 4 hours to the Isle of Wight to hand-deliver letters to an address in Bembridge which demanded the occupant pay £100,000 into a German bank account, or face nude photographs being splashed around the village. However, the letters were delivered to the wrong address and ended up on the doorstep of an elderly woman.
Over the course of the next 6 days, the victim received a series of texts, phone calls and emails with threats, including violence, if the demands for payment were not met. This was reported to Police.
Local detectives set up a sting involving Armed Police and arrested Achampong in the car park of Tesco Extra Ryde on 11th November, as exclusively reported by Island Echo.
Investigating officers examined Achampong’s phone and enquiries led them to discover a second victim from the Gloustershire area who had been manipulated into handing over large sums of money to someone they met online just 2 months before Achampong’s blackmail attempt on the Island. The victim in this case subsequently met with Achampong on 2 occasions at a service station off the M5 in Gloucestershire, where he handed over a total of £160,000 in cash.
Following investigations into these incidents, Achampong was charged with blackmail and 2 counts of fraud by false representation. However, investigations revealed that Achampong was not the mastermind behind the blackmail and fraud – with both plots being led by an unknown individual called ‘Martin’, from Germany.
Yesterday the 32-year-old appeared for sentencing at the Isle of Wight Crown Court after admitting all 3 charges against him. He was handed a 6 year 9 month prison sentence.
DC Anthony Daniels from the Isle of Wight Investigation team has said:
“Achampong embarked on a ruthless and manipulative campaign fuelled by greed.
“The men who were victim of these awful crimes have been significantly impacted by Achampong’s offending.
“Achampong travelled across the country to pursue these wicked deeds, and he will now pay the price for his involvement in this”.
6 years and 9 months? Hardly a sentence, he will probably be out in a couple of years!!
He will always be dangerous , and still young when released on parole. This is a pathetic sentence.
Should be 15 years, no parole. No wonder we are losing faith in the justice system.
And no faith in the immigration system.
None of these beings are vetted and I doubt any are deported when found to be what so many are really like.
Sickening when people are given a safe, decent land to bring up their numerous scattered offspring, all funded, yet still turn to the vilest of crime.
Be ok, if it was a rare event but not coincidence it happens wherever on the globe they choose to live.
Shame Crimewatch wasn’t still on, he would have been a prime candidate.
another thieving lowlife unmasked
Clearly an unintelligent stupid man. Any scam that involves you actually meeting the victim in person needs a fool to do it – and “Martin” in Germany obviously found one. Enjoy your “leisure” time, idiot.
What happened to that promise to deport foreign criminals and removing British citizenship from these scum. £160,000 for three and a half years in prison, which is all he will serve, equates to around £46,000 a year. Not bad work if you can get it. Where the hell is the punishment in that jail term. Where is the deterrent for others. Where is the compensation to the victims.
Do you mean deport him back to Yorkshire? Seeing as that’s where he’s from?
Don’t be naïve. Deportation refers to sending the scum back to his country of birth or previous nationality.
The Government has insisted on stricter controls on certain breeds of dogs after so many people were harmed by them, yet some owners rightly swore their own were very docile, but the risk was deemed to great by the higher than average percentage which were, so often, anything but docile so the Government rightly banned them for public safety.
As for where something is born, makes no odds, a cat giving birth in a kennel still has kittens, not puppies.
Not the government The righteous RSPCA drafted that bill as a knee jerk reaction, top of biters as well known now in A/E dept are Jack Russell’s and Poodles bully breeds, are not even in top 20!!big brush don’t tar all breeds cats, dogs or pet rats with it! Be careful that’s another cleverly worded phrase for prejudice!.
Where do you think he’s from then, do you know him?
Martin in Germany would have kept most of it now he’s making a pong in clink
Vile, and that is just what this revolting individual has been actually prosecuted for.. too short a sentence then out to do more crime.
Is that an old traditional Yorkshire name?
No, but it will be.
Don’t see any of you lot pipe up when a pedophile only gets a year sentence but a man from Bembridge who probably has an unheathly search history getting blackmailed that’s disgraceful
Strip them of there passports and and ship them straight back to where there come from.We give people like this a chance in our country to make something of themselves and it’s all just thrown back in our faces,time and time again.
As per the comments to Just Sayin, just because he is black with an African name does not mean he is not a British national born and raised here. Talk about ignorance!!
Bollox.