Gospel singer posed as U.S. fighter pilot, to steal £120,000 from lonely women

• Jailed: Oluwamayola Ajayi, pictured, conned a series of single women out of more than £120,000 using dating website match.com

An acclaimed gospel singer who used a dating site to steal more than £120,000 from lonely women by posing as a pilot, oil executive and grieving widower has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Conman Oluwamayola Ajayi, 31, preyed on four single women on popular dating website Match.com using a series of aliases and outlandish stories to fleece them of their cash.

He even sent email threats, purportedly from a captor, claiming he had been kidnapped and would be killed if a ransom was not paid.

Ajayi, who was nominated for best international act at the 2011 Gospel Music Awards under his stage name MaioJoe, was jailed for conspiracy to defraud at Snaresbrook Crown Court with Judge Sarah Paneth saying that it was clear he intended to defraud his victims 'for much more money' than he did.

He blew all the money on a luxury lifestyle, including a holiday to South Africa.

Judge Paneth added: 'This was not money these women had to spare, it was money they needed back urgently.

'Having spent all of their money you pursued them for more by saying you would be killed if they did not pay.'

The court heard how he gained the women’s trust before persuading them to hand over their savings to fund business enterprises insisting the cash would be repaid.

His victims, who all live in America and Canada, were ‘completely taken in’ by his elaborate lies.

They were left humiliated and some were financially ruined by the scam, which ran between November 2009 and August 2010. 

One victim handed over more than $125,000 (now £78,662) from her late husband’s life savings and dead mother’s estate, which she had earmarked for retirement.

Another disabled woman from Nova Scotia was duped into giving Ajayi almost $38,000 (£23,913) after he pretended to be Travis David McFly, a United States Airforce pilot serving in Iraq. 

Prosecutor Markus Rickard said: ‘He told a story to her about some gold bars he had found and that he wanted to get them out of Iraq so they could secure their financial future.

‘This inevitably led to the woman having supply money via an intermediary in London, to enable the gold bars to be taken from Iraq. 

‘She was completely taken in by him and intended to spend the rest of her life with him. 

‘At one point, she arranged to meet him at an airport and waited for five hours for him, but he did not turn up.

Ajayi pocketed around $30,000 (£18,873) from another internet lover, leaving her in financial dire straits. 

The singer also posed as a project manager in the oil and gas industry to fleece $7,000 (£4,404) from his final victim, telling her he needed the cash for expenses including a ‘Crude Oil Lifting Licence’.