WHEN 46-year-old Remi Fakorede was charged with defrauding the British government out of nearly 1 million pounds (S$2.5 million), the mother-of-six claimed she was the victim of a voodoo curse.

She said that 'forces of darkness' had allowed the cash to be paid into her account, that they had killed her mother and had cut off the fingers of her three-year-old daughter.She even pulled the fingers from her handbag during the trial in London, making one of the jury members burst into tears

It emerged that the fingers belonged to one of her children, who had had to have them amputated as a result of a kidney condition which led to gangrene.The accused's theatrics failed to move the sceptical court, which sentenced her to five years in jail for tax credit fraud.

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