Fake groom jailed for life for murder in sham marriages scam

Jurick Croes was paid £500 to engage in a sham marriage but hatched a plan to rob Bernadette Ortet because he had been expecting £50,000, the Old Bailey heard.

When he and two accomplices went to her house near Elephant and Castle, south-east London, in November 2020 Ms Ortet’s son Riches Obi tried to protect her and was fatally stabbed.

The three intruders had bound Ms Ortet with cable ties and a scarf in a bedroom at the property.

The court had heard that Ms Ortet was alleged to have been involved in a sham marriages scam and at the time was a case worker for a firm of solicitors specialising in immigration and nationality.

Following a retrial, Croes, 38, of no fixed address, was found guilty of Mr Obi’s murder and the false imprisonment of his mother.

On Friday, he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years for what Judge Nigel Lickley said was the “vicious and savage” murder of a defenceless man in his own home.

He was also jailed for nine years for false imprisonment to be served concurrently.

Raichell Felomina, 40, of no fixed address, was convicted of false imprisonment and jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Hairdresser turned model agency entrepreneur Suvenca Martis, 34, of Forest Hill, south-east London, who had helped in the sham marriage scam, was convicted of false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

She was handed a total of 11-and-a-half years in prison.

Judge Lickley said she had been a “willing and active” participant in the plan.

Martis was also sentenced to three-and-a-half years to be served concurrently for five counts of possession of drugs with intent to supply relating to a stash of MDMA, heroin, cocaine and other substances, which she had admitted holding for someone else.

Ms Ortet, who is in Nigeria, submitted a victim impact statement to the court detailing her trauma and grief.

She condemned the “heartless” defendants, saying her son was killed in the “most gruesome manner” and “slaughtered like an animal”.

She described her son as the “cornerstone” of the family, and a selfless gentleman who had a simple life lived by the “highest values”.

She said: “My mind knows nothing but trauma and terror. I lost the full function of my neck since I was assaulted.”

The defendants had been “shameless and untruthful” and shown no remorse for their crimes, she said.

The court heard how police had been called to a stabbing at a property in Harper Road near Elephant and Castle on November 17 2020.

They arrived to find the front door partly open and Mr Obi collapsed with stab and slash wounds to his chest in the blood-stained hall.

An officer called out to see whether there was anyone else in the flat and a woman’s voice replied saying “I’m here”, the jury was told.

Following the sound of her calls, the officers found Mr Obi’s mother, Ms Ortet, in a bedroom.

Her wrists and ankles had been bound with cable ties and a scarf around her neck appeared to have fallen from her mouth, having been used to gag her.

The room was heavily stained with blood, on the bed, door and furniture, up the walls and on the ceiling, the court was told.

Despite efforts to save Mr Obi, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

An examination of the flat revealed that Mr Obi’s bedroom appeared to have been searched and a roll of duct tape was under a chair.

One of the defendants, Martis, was captured on CCTV at a hardware store in Camberwell, south London, buying cable ties and black tape.

Prosecutor Jennifer Knight KC had told jurors: “The background to these offences seems to lie in a sham marriage scheme in which all three of these defendants and Bernadette Ortet were engaged.

“It seems likely that these defendants had become angry about the remuneration they were receiving for their part in the scheme and went to Bernadette Ortet’s flat on November 17 determined to demand and obtain money from her.”

The court heard all three defendants had previous convictions in the Netherlands.

Croes had convictions for theft, Felomina’s convictions included threats to kill, theft, having an unauthorised firearm and drugs, and Martis had convictions for theft and cocaine smuggling.