A fraudster who took nearly £400,000 from unsuspecting students in a computer scam has been jailed.

Nigerian Olajide Onikoyi, 29, was part of a group of cyber criminals who targeted students by sending them emails inviting them to update details on their student loan account via a link to a bogus website.

When the site was accessed by the unsuspecting victims, Onikoyi was able to gain unauthorised access to their bank accounts and withdraw large amounts of cash.

One victim had £19,000 taken from their account. Onikoyi laundered £393,000 from 238 victims in total.

After an operation by the now closed Met Police Central e-Crime unit, officers seized computers from properties in London and Manchester on December 8 last year.

Onikoyi was arrested the next day.

Chat logs on a seized computer revealed he was conspiring with others from Russia, Lithuania and the UK in order to compromise computers and associated bank accounts.

He was charged the following day and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud UK financial institutions of £393,000 and money laundering on December 10.

He was he was jailed for conspiracy to defraud and nine months imprisonment for money laundering, to run consecutively.

Detective Chief Inspector Jason Tunn, of the MPS Cyber Crime Unit said: “He played a significant role in the scam by systematically targeting British students and UK financial institutions in order to steal large amounts of money that were then dispersed across numerous bank accounts.”

Four other members of the group from London, Manchester and Bolton were also jailed.

•Credit (except headline): London Evening Standard. Photo shows jailed internet fraudster Olajide Onikoyi.