A 'MONEY MULE' caught as part of a cyber-gang of online criminals has been jailed.

Paul Yeboa was part of a con that fleeced vulnerable women out of tens of thousands of pounds in a fake 'romance scam.'

In all, three victims lost more than £100,000 in the online con.

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The 35-year-old of Barlow Road, Wednesbury, had denied two counts of converting criminal property.

Prosecutors at Oxford Crown Court said that he laundered money, storing it temporarily in a bank account, after it had been fleeced from two victims by other offenders.

After he was found guilty by a unanimous verdict he went on to admit another offence, involving a third victim, and was sentenced at the same court yesterday.

In the online dating scam two women, from Oxfordshire, had used internet dating websites when they were befriended by their eventual scammers.

During the initial trial held in August jurors were told that two women sent two men - whom they had never met in person - sums of money by electronic transfer.

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The first victim sent a total of £50,000 and the second £40,000.

While Yeboa was not connected to either of the men who had scammed the women his bank account was where the victim's funds were ultimately transferred.

Prosecutors told jurors that Yeboa 'acted as a money mule' in the cyber-scam.

After that trial Yeboa went on to admit to a separate offence involving a third victim, who lost £14,500 to the scam.

At his sentencing hearing the court heard from a pre-sentence report compiled for Yeboa that 'there was no particular indication of remorse.'

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In mitigation his defence barrister Chloe Ashley said that her client had worked at a recycling centre for some 10 years and Yeboa hoped to return to that employment after his sentence was served.

Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC said that the victims of the online scam were 'vulnerable.'

He said the offences merited a jail term and it was not one that he would suspend.

Yeboa was jailed for a total of 15 months and he will be subject to a forthcoming proceeds of crime hearing to recover the ill-gotten gains on August 20.