Must we always be in international news for all the wrong reasons? I am getting sick and tired of these. Here is what daily mail is reporting: A Nigerian couple who tried to claim £3.8million in an ‘eye-watering’ benefits scam using 1,400 stolen identities have been jailed for a total of almost 10 years.
Adeola Thomas, 38, assisted by his partner, Abimbola Abiola, 34, managed to pocket £87,000 after submitting almost 2,500 handwritten applications for tax credits and benefits.
The pair spent the money on designer clothing and electrical items including a 50-inch plasma television.
But the fraud was
discovered when benefits staff noticed the same address was being used
for multiple claims, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Thomas, an illegal
immigrant, was jailed for seven years while Abiola, also a Nigerian
national with leave to remain in the UK, received two-and-a-half years.
Passing sentence, Judge
William Kennedy said: ‘This was no less than a criminal industry, with
simple and eye watering criminality designed to maximise the loss to the
public.
‘It was a difficult investigation carried out with skill and tenacity.
‘The largest single
joint conspiracy [of its kind] for these departments and the actual loss
was kept down because of the work of both departments.’
Judge Kennedy also indicated that both Thomas and Abiola should be deported at the end of their prison terms.
The pair, who carried
out the scam between January 3, 2007 and October 7, 2011, tried to claim
£827,000 from HMRC, securing £43,000.
They also claimed £3 million from the Department of Work and Pensions and received £44,000.
With Abiola’s help,
Thomas used stolen personal details to complete 2,495 handwritten
application forms, which were sent to the appropriate departments for
processing.
It is believed that others unknown to investigators, also provided postal addresses and assisted with correspondence.
When the claims were
successful, the pair withdrew cash from acquaintances' bank accounts or
from bogus post office accounts that Thomas, who masterminded the scam,
had set up.
As well as analysing tax
credit records, computer systems, hand written application forms and
bank account details and listening to hours of recorded phones calls to
the Tax Credit Helpline, HMRC investigators viewed CCTV footage showing
activity outside various North London Post Office ATMs and carried out
surveillance on Thomas.
He was arrested outside a
cash point at Upper Clacton Post Office in Hackney, east London last
October 7 where he was found to be in possession of 17 Post Office
accounts.
He also had two mobile phones and two fraudulently completed application forms addressed to Job Centre Plus.
Abiola, a mother-of-one,
was caught on the same day with £4,125 cash in her handbag, which she
claimed was child benefit payment.
Thomas, of Hackney, east London, admitted three counts of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.
Abiola, of the same
address was found guilty of four counts of conspiracy to defraud, money
laundering and possession of criminal property following a trial at the
court in August.
Credit: DailyMail.
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