Latest news with #benefitfraud
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
How benefits fraud exploded – and milking the system went mainstream
Sara Morris, a 50-year-old from Stone, Staffordshire, is not the first middle-aged jogger to showcase their exploits on social media. In posts on Facebook, the mother-of-three – and member of the Stone Master Marathoners – advertised her exertions in scores of running events, including 5k and 10k races. The difference for Morris was that rather than just showing off, her posts betrayed her as a benefits cheat. In 2005 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but in 2020 she exaggerated the extent of her condition to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP). She claimed that she could not stand at her cooker or get out of the bath, and that she was so anxious she ended up in tears when she went to the pharmacy to collect her medication. She did not mention long-distance running. At Stoke Crown Court last July, Morris was sentenced to eight months in prison for dishonestly making a false statement to obtain a benefit, having been overpaid £20,528.83 between October 20 2020 and April 25 2023. Between May 2019 and December 2022, an investigation found that she competed in 73 races. She accepted that her benefit application 'crossed over into the realms of dishonesty'. She served nine weeks. Last week, in a proceeds of crime hearing, in the same court Judge Graeme Smith ordered Morris to repay £22,386.02 within 28 days or serve nine months in prison in default. Benefit fraud remains stubbornly high since the pandemic Morris's case is so blatant as to verge on the comic. But Keir Starmer will not laugh at the timing of the hearing, in a week when he has faced calls for higher spending and warnings of lower growth. On Monday, the Prime Minister revealed the results of Lord Robertson's Strategic Defence Review, which included a pledge to build up to 12 new attack submarines and increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent of national income. He had barely finished the announcement when it was reported that Nato would oblige him to commit to increasing defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035. On Thursday US defence secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for five per cent. Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted that the UK economic growth would slump to a measly one per cent next year, hit by uncertainty over Donald Trump's tariffs regime and higher-than-expected inflation. Even if Starmer manages to reform the welfare system, as he has promised – and his handbrake U-turn on winter fuel payments suggest this will be easier said than done – it appears inevitable he will have to put up taxes, too. It's never a popular decision, and especially not when there is a perception among the vast majority that criminals and scammers are fleecing honest taxpayers. And that perception is borne out by the statistics: benefit fraud has remained stubbornly high since the pandemic, while convictions for the crime have fallen. Telegraph analysis of Ministry of Justice data shows that the number of people sentenced for key benefit fraud-related offences has plummeted from 4,154 to 685 since 2017. Such is public concern that Britons overestimate the true extent of benefit fraud. 'We find that the public estimate that about 24 per cent of the entire welfare budget is being fraudulently claimed, whereas the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) estimate 2.2 per cent of benefit expenditure is 'over paid',' says Ben Page, CEO of Ipsos. Yet in a department as large as the DWP, even a small percentage can mean a huge loss. In its report last year, the DWP reported a top-line figure that 2.8 per cent of its £268 billion total benefits outlay (which includes around £160 billion on pensions, less susceptible to fraud), or £7.4 billion, was lost to fraud. This year fraud was down to 2.2 per cent, or £6.5 billion – a sum that has more than doubled since 2020 – with a further £1.9 billion on claimant error and £1 billion official error. If fraud was its own block of spending, it would be not far from how much the government spends on the entire legal system (£8.6 billion), and more than higher education (£7.2 billion), foreign aid (£7.2 billion) and potholes (£7 billion). It would be enough to buy you a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier with change for 11 F-35s to put on it. A 1p cut in income tax would cost just £6.4 billion. There were 7.5 million people on Universal Credit in January 2025, up from 6.4 million people on Universal Credit in January 2024. The most recent data show that there were 39,000 new 'starts' – people receiving benefit – per week in that month from 47,000 claims, implying an acceptance rate of 83 per cent. High profile fraud cases, even if they represent a minority of claimants, are infuriating for the rule-abiding public and toxic for government. Sara Morris's was not the only recent case to make headlines. Last May, three women and two men from a Bulgarian crime gang were jailed for between three and eight years each for a £50 million benefits fraud, the biggest in British history, which involved thousands of fraudulent claims. Sentencing Gyunesh Ali, one of the gang members, Judge David Aaronberg said Ali had committed fraud 'on an industrial scale'. In December, Halton council announced it would have to write off more than £240,000 of unpaid welfare fraud debt owed by Christina Pomfrey, a Runcorn grandmother, after her death. Pomfrey had received more than £1 million in benefits over a 15-year period, having lied that her MS had left her blind and in need of a wheelchair, before she was arrested. In 2020 she was sentenced to three years and eight months, after what the judge called 'staggering' dishonesty and 'determined benefit fraud on a substantial scale'. In October 2023, Hossein Ali Najafi, 57, who was born in Iran, was sentenced to 29 months in prison for falsely claiming £349,000 in benefits, using two identities and 26 bank accounts. 'Fraudsters like Hossein Ali Najafi abuse the benefits system, which exists to support people who are in genuine need,' said Maqsood Khan, senior crown prosecutor of Mersey Cheshire Fraud Unit. Gaming the system And so on and on. Benefit fraud has rocketed in recent times. A State of the Nation report commissioned by David Cameron's government in 2010 estimated the total fraud to be £1 billion. In 2011/12, the DWP estimated that fraud was worth 0.7 per cent of the total budget. (The government's counting method changed after 2018.) The figures rocketed up during the pandemic, particularly in Universal Credit. According to the National Audit Office's analysis of the DWP data, the Universal Credit overpayments due to fraud and error went from £700 million in 2018-2019 to £1.7 billion the following year and a whopping £5.5 billion the year by 2020-2021. Last year's record figure for Universal Credit fraud was £6.5 billion. Fraud in other areas, such as housing benefit, meanwhile, remained stable or fell over the same period. State pension fraud is extremely low, with less than 0.1 per cent overpaid due to fraud or error. The fraud rate in Universal Credit amounts to around 10 per cent of the overall Universal Credit spending; bearing in mind this only registers the fraud that has been caught, the true figure may be higher still. That's not counting the men and women – perhaps following tips gleaned from a 'sickfluencer' – who are gaming the system but technically within the letter of it. It has been argued that one factor in the shocking rise in Universal Credit fraud has been the move away from in-person assessments to remote ones, often conducted over the phone. Last year Peter Schofield, the DWP permanent secretary, blamed the 'underlying growth of fraud in the economy' for the increase. Reporting on the 2024 figures, the National Audit Office's Gareth Davies said it was clear the DWP 'no longer expects Universal Credit fraud and error to return to the levels seen before the significant increase during the Covid-19 pandemic'. A DWP spokesperson told The Telegraph: 'We are bringing forward the biggest fraud crackdown in a generation, as part of wider plans that will save £9.6 billion by 2030. 'Thanks to our efforts we have reduced fraud by around £800 million – with over £400 million of savings in Universal Credit alone in the last year. We are absolutely clear we will not tolerate any waste as we protect taxpayer's money.' Joe Shalam, the policy director of the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank, who previously worked at the DWP, believes that there has been a cultural shift in recent years towards seeking out benefits. 'The rise in benefit fraud is analogous to the rise in shoplifting,' he says. 'A population-level change driven by wider economic forces, like inflation and the cost of living. Such casual lawbreaking was highlighted last week when Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and putative successor to Kemi Badenoch as Conservative leader, released a widely-shared film in which he confronted some of the passengers on the Tube, thought to be as many as one in 25 of the total, who push through the barriers without paying. Corroding faith in government But there is a cultural dimension to it as well. The welfare system has an implicit or assumed sense that everyone who is 'entitled' will not necessarily apply for it. We're seeing a cultural shift where people are much more likely to say 'my neighbour is receiving X, why am I not?' says Shalam. 'There are some cultural and economic factors that make it harder to get back to a pre-pandemic norm.' In March, for example, it was reported that the Motability scheme, which provides taxpayer-funded cars to those claiming PIP benefits, had signed up 815,000 people last year, an increase of more than 170,000 in a year. Claimants can apply for a new model every three years. The Motability fleet is the biggest in Europe, valued at more than £14 billion. On social media, there are accounts dedicated to showing their followers how they can secure a car for themselves, too. All of which can corrode faith in government, says James Frayne, a veteran political strategist. 'Since the late 2000s, when everyone had to tighten their belts, there has been increasing exasperation that some people are wrongly living off the fat of the land by claiming benefits they aren't due,' he says. 'While people get angry at cases of systematic criminal fraud, they can get just as angry at individuals they think just can't be bothered to work. It all adds up to this sense that nobody seems to be able to govern Britain properly. Inevitably, the anger at those milking or ripping off the system rebounds towards politicians.' Soon after winning the general election last year, Keir Starmer announced that cracking down on benefit fraud would be a priority for his government. In his speech to the Labour Party conference in September, he said that new legislation, following a policy mooted by the Conservatives, would let investigators 'root out' fraud with similar powers of 'search and seizure' to those enjoyed by HMRC. This would compel banks to hand over financial information about their customers where there was reasonable suspicion of benefit fraud. The plan was designed to save the taxpayer £1.6 billion over five years and free up more money for public services. Another proposal, announced in January, was to strip benefit fraudsters of their driving licences. Starmer's reforms have met with resistance. Neil Duncan-Jordan, who was elected the Labour MP for Poole last year, has proposed amendments to the bill that would ensure only those suspected of fraud would be surveilled. Writing in The Guardian, Duncan accused Starmer of 'resurrecting Tory proposals for mass spying on people who receive state support' and that under the proposed legislation 'welfare recipients would be treated as suspects, simply because they need support from the state'. The vast sums of money lost to benefit fraud are also an incentive for a government to crack down on it, to free up money for other projects. Recent comparative international studies are thin on the ground, but Britain might learn from Finland, a high-trust society with a relatively simple benefits system and high rates of digitisation, where fraud rates amount to less than half a percentage point of the total paid. According to the latest report by Kela, the Finnish welfare institution, there were 1,104 suspected cases of benefit 'misuse' in 2024, amounting to €7.2 million (£6 million); the number of cases has been stable over the past five years. In the UK, failing a cultural reversion away from seeking out every benefit you might be entitled to, Shalam believes technology might improve efficiency. 'Analysing and assessing all the information about people's claims and their condition takes a huge volume of human resource,' he says. 'There's a lot of potential in AI to crack down on fraud and make sure the system is going to those who need it most.' Ultimately the people most angry about benefit fraud are those working on the front lines, says Amber Rudd, who was secretary of state for work and pensions from 2018-2019. 'The people who mind most about [fraud] are the people who work in the job centres,' she says. 'They find it really upsetting and frustrating. They are trying to help other people. When I went round the job centres it was the first thing they wanted to talk about. Fraud takes many different forms. The abusive form, forcing single mothers to go in and apply, then there are the multiple frauds where someone has a system. 'It's like the bank robber who says he robs banks because 'that's where the money is'. There's money being handed out; there is inevitably going to be fraud. I thought at the time we could do better with technology trying to weed it out. But it's going to be a constant battle.' In attempting to mitigate Sara Morris's sentence, her lawyer Paul Cliff conceded that her application to the DWP 'did not give the full picture,' but that 'running was one of the ways she tried to manage her MS'. 'She lost her home because of financial problems,' he also said. 'And was struggling to keep her head above water financially.' As he tries to placate an increasingly angry electorate while balancing Britain's precarious books, Keir Starmer may sympathise with her.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Can I see your BritCard? Downing Street looking to bring in app to crackdown on illegal immigration
Downing Street is looking to bring in an identity card app in a bid to clamp down on illegal immigration. Senior No 10 figures are said to be examining proposals for a new BritCard which would display a person's right to live, work and rent in the UK. The idea, which would see individuals' identities stored on a smartphone, also aims to tackle benefit fraud by linking the card to government records and has received support from several cabinet ministers, inluding cabinet office minister Pat McFadden and technology secretary Peter Kyle. Advocates think the scheme will send the message that Britain is not 'a soft touch' on illegal migration and will decrease the 'pull' factor, which many European countries blame for the ongoing small boats crisis, The Times reports. Britain remains the only European nation without an ID card system, with Tony Blair 's famous attempt to introduce one collapsing in 2011, after the coalition government pulled the plug on it. It is also hoped the app can tie a number of different services together, including ordering passports, displaying driving licences and national insurance numbers, and offering NHS services. Labour Together, a think tank run by Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, from 2017 to 2020, has collated plans for the card and sent them to Downing Street. They include a requirement to 'show' the ID when renting a property or starting a new job, with the system automatically checking their right to work or rent against government records. Existing documents to check identity can be easily forged, potentially deceiving landlords or prospective employers. A mock up of the app, seen in the plans, shows a screen with an individuals' face and name on it, as well as his right to work and rent statuses, driving licence, and options to share identity or age. The report, published on Friday, urges the Prime Minister to make digital identity a 'top prime ministerial priority' and commence a 'fundamental transformation in the way British citizens interact with the government'. It points to a poll which suggests 80 per cent of the public back the implementation of digital right-to-work credentials, with just under one in three believing it would act as a deterrent against people entering the country illegally. The report said that those who did not want to have a digital ID card on their phone would be allowed to carry a physical one instead. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has placed herself in opposition to some of her colleagues, including many from the 'Red Wall' wave of Labour MPs, with Home Office sources describing her position as 'nuanced'. Sir Keir Starmer has admitted the public has 'every right to be angry' about the issue after more than a thousand migrants made the journey in a single day for the first time this year. Home Office data showed 1,194 migrants arrived in 18 boats on Saturday. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper , pictured in May, has placed herself in opposition to some of her colleagues, including many from the 'Red Wall' wave of Labour MPs But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Sir Keir's words as 'rubbish', claiming that even Defence Secretary John Healey had acknowledged ministers had 'lost control' of the borders. Saturday's figures were the first time daily crossings topped a thousand in 2025, and prompted Mr Healey to claim Britain had 'lost control' over the last five years, implicating the former Tory government. Writing on social media site X on Monday, the Prime Minister said: 'You have every right to be angry about small boat crossings. 'I'm angry too. We are ramping up our efforts to smash the people smuggling gangs at source.' He claimed hundreds of boats and engines had been 'seized', raids on illegal working were up, and 'almost 30,000 people' had been returned. But Mrs Badenoch hit back, responding: 'Rubbish! Even the Defence Secretary admits the govt has 'lost control' of our borders.' Small boat arrivals are 'up 95% from this point in 2023', she said, and claimed ministers had 'scrapped the only viable deterrent': the previous Conservative government's Rwanda plan. Sir Keir had earlier insisted the Rwanda plan 'didn't deter anybody', after his decision to scrap it was highlighted while he visited Glasgow for a major defence announcement. He added: 'I'm not up for gimmicks. I'm up for the hard work of working with partners, enhancing the powers that law enforcement have, in my determination to take down the gangs that are running this vile trade.' Saturday's crossings brought the provisional annual total so far of migrants who have made the journey to 14,811. This is 42 per cent higher than the same point last year (10,448) and 95% up from the same point in 2023 (7,610). It is still lower than the highest daily total of 1,305 arrivals since data began in 2018, which was recorded on September 3, 2022.
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Benefits cheat mother who invented fake medical issues for teenage son to claim £170,000 is jailed
A mother who pretended her son was suffering from fake medical conditions as part of a campaign to fraudulently claim £170,000 in benefits has been jailed for two years. Angela Lloyd, 58, from Merseyside, said the 15-year-old needed a carer called Joyce Bibby - a woman who died before the claim was even made. She also lied about her job at Tesco and concocted a range of pseudonyms over an 11-year campaign to steal taxpayer's cash. The part-time care worker even used a dead woman's identity as part of a con which saw her partner Lee Phillips net ill-gotten gains amounting to a further £100,000. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday Lloyd fraudulently claimed a total £169,394 in housing benefit, personal independence payments and carer's allowance. While Phillips helped himself to £100.980 in false claims for employment support allowance, PIP, housing benefit and council tax reduction. Prosecutor Olivia Beesley said Lloyd's con first began in February 2012 when she started claiming housing benefits in relation to a caravan. The 58-year-old even created a false tenancy agreement for the 'entirely fictitious' caravan, enabling her to swindle £71,597 from West Lancashire Borough Council. Lloyd then began making fraudulent claims in respect of Phillips to St Helens Borough Council in 2018. She claimed her husband required 'multiple daily carers to attend to his needs' and used his sister Zoe Phillips' birth certificate to pose as the sibling, whom she falsely maintained was his main carer. She also claimed that she was not in employment due to caring commitments for her co-defendant, which she said amounted to 35 hours per week. However, she was in fact working for care company Hand in Hand Homecare under the pseudonym Wendy Lloyd and at a Tesco store using the name Angela Valentine. This saw her benefit to the tune of £73,085 in relation to costs for fictitious carers, as well as £753.40 in carers allowance. From January 2022, Lloyd then began to pretend her son had a medical condition. She stated he had a carer called Joyce Bibby, a woman who had died before the claim was initiated. As a result, she falsely claimed £9,922 in disability living allowance overpayments and personal independence payments of £508 in relation to the then 15-year-old boy. Meanwhile, she benefited from £13,526 of PIP 'on the grounds that she needed carers to help with her daily care due to her health conditions', again naming the deceased Ms Bibby as her social worker. Phillips also failed to disclose to the council that Lloyd had moved into his home in St Helens during 2018. This enabled him to continue to claim £13,633 in housing benefits and £2,246 in council tax reductions on the false basis that he was living alone. The 54-year-old was further said to have 'exaggerated his medical conditions, caring needs and capabilities' in order to pocket PIP overpayments of £32,073. Having declared himself unfit for work and claimed to have no other income he falsely gained a further £51,397 in employment support allowance. Phillips later alleged that Lloyd 'had completed the form for him and had just asked him to sign it'. His counsel Jim Smith said: 'The defendant has a complex recent history of mental health and physical disabilities. He suffers from a functional neurological disorder. 'He has a pacemaker with a defibrillator fitted. He is a type two diabetic. He suffers from kidney failure, anxiety and depression. 'He is in receipt of substantial medication to treat those conditions and is presently seen by a number of carers who attend to his medication and mobility issues. He appears in court today in a wheelchair. 'It is respectfully submitted that the defendant would be highly vulnerable in a custodial setting. I would respectfully submit that your honour can draw back from that sanction. 'He has no previous like convictions. His original benefits were legitimate from the outset and became illegitimate following a failure to notify a change of circumstances following involvement with the co-defendant in his life. Clearly, there are vulnerability issues in his case.' Lloyd had a series of past convictions for dishonesty offences and theft dating back to the 1980s, although her last court appearance was in 2012. Jeremy Rawson, defending, told the court: 'Her record, I accept, does not assist her, but it is of some age. 'She accepts full responsibility for what she has done and accepts in her letter to your honour that she does have to be punished for that. 'She has personal mitigation. She continues in employment. She is making some repayments. She is working in the caring profession. She has caring responsibilities with her son.' Lloyd admitted a total of seven counts of fraud by false representation. She burst into tears and cried 'oh my god' as she was locked up for two years. Phillips pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and three counts of dishonestly failing to disclose information to make a gain. He was seen wiping tears away with a tissue as he was locked up for 20 months. Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC said: 'You have both pleaded guilty to a substantial and determined fraud on the public purse. 'You invented fictitious addresses, used false names, used a dead person's identification and lied about the extent of [your son's] illness. 'In your case, Mr Phillips, you have nothing relevant by way of antecedents, and the amount that you defrauded is substantially less than that of your co-defendant. 'In your case, Ms Lloyd, for over 40 years, you have been committing offences of dishonesty. 'I acknowledge that your risk of reoffending may be low and that you do not present a threat to the public at large, but I have to consider punishment and deterrent. 'For those who seek to defraud the public of scarce and valuable benefits which need to be directed to those who need them, not those who simply wish to have them for reasons of personal greed, that is a serious offence committed by each of you over a long period of time.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mum bursts out shouting 'oh my God' as her web of lies are exposed
A Merseyside mum has been jailed for two years following a decade-long campaign which saw her invent medical conditions and use three different names in order to fraudulently claim benefits. Angela Lloyd fraudulently pocketed nearly £170,000 since 2012, spouting a string of untruths regarding her job at Tesco, a caravan which never existed and fake medical conditions which she wrongly claimed her teenage son suffered from. The part-time care worker also concocted pseudonyms and used a dead woman's identity as part of a con which saw her partner Lee Phillips net ill-gotten gains amounting to a further £100,000. READ MORE: Why the man arrested in the Liverpool parade crash can't be named READ MORE: Man, 23, scammed out of £10,000 takes his own life A judge told them yesterday that they had acted "for reasons of personal greed" while carrying out a "substantial and determined fraud on the public purse", the Liverpool Echo reports. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday (May 27) that Lloyd claimed a total of £169,394.15 which she was not entitled to in housing benefit, personal independence payments and carers allowance over the span of 11-and-a-half years. Phillips meanwhile helped himself to £100.980.71 in false claims for employment support allowance, PIP, housing benefit and council tax reduction over a period of around five-and-a-half years from April 2018 onwards. Olivia Beesley, prosecuting, described how Lloyd's con first began in February 2012, when she started to claim housing benefits from West Lancashire Borough Council in relation to a caravan on a site at a "fictitious address" of Riverside Walk in Southport. The 58-year-old even created a false tenancy agreement for the "entirely fictitious" caravan, enabling her to swindle £71,597.16 from the local authority. Lloyd then began making fraudulent claims in respect of Phillips to St Helens Borough Council in 2018. This saw her incorrectly state that her husband required "multiple daily carers to attend to his needs" and used his sister Zoe Phillips' birth certificate to pose as the sibling, whom she falsely maintained was his main carer. She also claimed that she was not in employment due to caring commitments for her co-defendant, which she said amounted to 35 hours per week. However, she was in fact working for care company Hand in Hand Homecare under the pseudonym Wendy Lloyd and at a Tesco store using the name Angela Valentine. This saw her benefit to the tune of £73,085.29 in relation to costs for fictitious carers, as well as £753.40 in carers allowance. From January 2022, Lloyd then began to "invent false medical condition for her son" and stated that he had a carer called Joyce Bibby, a woman who had died before the claim was initiated. As a result, she falsely claimed £9,922.95 in disability living allowance overpayments and personal independence payments of £508.75 in relation to the then 15-year-old boy. She meanwhile benefited from £13,526.70 of PIP "on the grounds that she needed carers to help with her daily care due to her health conditions", again naming the deceased Ms Bibby as her social worker. Phillips also failed to disclose to the council that Lloyd had moved into his home on Birch Gardens in St Helens during 2018, enabling him to continue to claim £13,633.67 in housing benefits and £2,246.94 in council tax reductions on the false basis that he was living alone. The 54-year-old was further said to have "exaggerated his medical conditions, caring needs and capabilities", including maintaining that he was "unable to do anything for himself", in order to pocket PIP overpayments of £32,073.88. Having declared himself unfit for work and claimed to have no other income, overlooking his wife's wages, he falsely gained a further £51,397.13 in employment support allowance. Phillips later alleged that Lloyd "had completed the form for him and had just asked him to sign it". His counsel Jim Smith said on his behalf: "The defendant has a complex recent history of mental health and physical disabilities. He suffers from a functional neurological disorder. "He has a pacemaker with a defibrillator fitted. He is a type two diabetic. He suffers from kidney failure, anxiety and depression. "He is in receipt of substantial medication to treat those conditions and is presently seen by a number of carers who attend to his medication and mobility issues. He appears in court today in a wheelchair. "It is respectfully submitted that the defendant would be highly vulnerable in a custodial setting. I would respectfully submit that your honour can draw back from that sanction. "He has no previous like convictions. His original benefits were legitimate from the outset and became illegitimate following a failure to notify a change of circumstances following involvement with the co-defendant in his life. Clearly, there are vulnerability issues in his case." Lloyd's criminal record show a series of previous entries for dishonesty offences and theft dating back to the 1980s, although her last appearance came in 2012. Jeremy Rawson, defending, told the court: "Her record, I accept, does not assist her, but it is of some age. "She accepts full responsibility for what she has done and accepts in her letter to your honour that she does have to be punished for that. "She has personal mitigation. She continues in employment. She is making some repayments. She is working in the caring profession. She has caring responsibilities with her son." Lloyd admitted a total of seven counts of fraud by false representation. She burst into tears and cried "oh my god" as she was locked up for two years. Phillips pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and three counts of dishonestly failing to disclose information to make a gain. He too was seen wiping tears away with a tissue as he was locked up for 20 months. Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC said: "You have both pleaded guilty to a substantial and determined fraud on the public purse. You invented fictitious addresses, used false names, used a dead person's identification and lied about the extent of [your son's] illness. "In your case, Mr Phillips, you have nothing relevant by way of antecedents, and the amount that you defrauded is substantially less than that of your co-defendant. In your case, Ms Lloyd, for over 40 years, you have been committing offences of dishonesty. "I acknowledge that your risk of reoffending may be low and that you do not present a threat to the public at large, but I have to consider punishment and deterrent. "For those who seek to defraud the public of scarce and valuable benefits which need to be directed to those who need them, not those who simply wish to have them for reasons of personal greed, that is a serious offence committed by each of you over a long period of time."
The Sun
11-05-2025
- The Sun
Fraudsters ‘stole my identity and claimed Universal Credit under my name' – I've lost thousands and DWP don't care
A MAN has told how scammers stole his identity to falsely claim Universal Credit in his name. Aaron Bargota suddenly noticed a hefty £500 chunk was taken out of his hard-earned pay cheque. 4 4 When Aaron queried it with his bosses, the 31-year-old was told about a DWP letter which said he owed the government money to reimburse wrongly-claimed Universal Credit payments. Aaron - from Tamworth, Staffordshire - has never claimed Universal Credit, and is sure his identity was stolen by scammers. What should you do if you're a victim of benefit fraud? According to ActionFraud Contact Action fraud for support and guidance. Notify your local council and benefits office. Report someone you think is committing benefit fraud Call the National Benefit Fraud Hotline (NFBH) on 0800 854 440. Lines are open between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. The Welsh National Benefit Fraud Hotline on 0800 678 3722 is open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (an out-of-hours messaging service operates from 7am to 8am and 6pm to 11pm weekdays and from 7am to 11pm at weekends). If you would prefer to make your report in writing, you can send information to: National Benefit Fraud Hotline, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 2BP All reports of benefit fraud are treated in the strictest confidence. He fears they somehow got a hold of his national insurance number, date of birth and other personal details to carry out the vile scam. Aaron told The Sun: "The fraudsters have opened a Universal Credit account in my name. I'm not sure how they got them. "They've started claiming benefits, pretending to be me, they've racked up over a grand in debt. "They were claiming and now the government want it back which has left me short-handed. "I've tried to tell them it's not me, but they don't believe me. "One of them was trying to claim for child benefits, I don't have kids." Not getting anywhere with the DWP, Aaron asked his local MP Sarah Edwards for help. Our once-booming town has become a benefits sinkhole where HALF of adults are out of work & bored, feral kids set homes alight with fireworks But the MP was told Aaron WAS liable to pay back the debt. Aaron insists he never received the letter informing him of their decision - as the "scammers" registered his address as in London, miles away from his West Midlands home. A DWP spokesperson has confirmed another into his claim is now taking place. "No one has ever contacted me to prove anything, because the fraudsters are intercepting everything," the aerospace engineering operator explained. "I'm not getting any letters through because their address is in London, I'm in the West Midlands. "This meant I missed the deadline to appeal. I can't even shut the account down because I didn't create it. "It's ruining my life. I don't even want to leave the house." A DWP spokesperson said: 'Mr Bargota has requested a Mandatory Reconsideration of our decision, and an independent review is now taking place.' Aaron went on to slam "broken system" and said that the government continues to "help the scammers". He continued: "Every time I call up, the system is broke, the government should be there to help. I've been calling UC everyday, I've been to the job centre and they say they can't help, because I didn't create the account, I can't access it. "I've told them that it's my information, which they accept, but they won't do anything about it." He vowed to "go to court" if he has to. 4 One of the biggest benefit fraud scams in the UK saw five scammers swindle the government of over £53million in Universal Credit claims. Galina Nikolova was one of the masterminds behind the scheme. She was found to be responsible for £25million in losses to the taxpayer and received the longest sentence for her involvement. Nikolova operated from an unassuming shop called Antonia Food in north London, which served as a front for their fraudulent activities. She worked with Stoyan Stoyanov, Gyunesh Ali, Tsvetka Todorova, and Patritsia Paneva. The gang's operation was sophisticated and extensive, taking a total of £53,901,959.82 in Universal Credit payments over a period of nearly five years. The Bulgarian fraudsters operated on an "industrial scale" out the back of three corner shops in Wood Green, North London. They used real people and stolen identities to make the fraudulent claims, which were backed up with falsified documents. If their claims were denied, the brazen gang just persistently re-applied until they were approved. They set up three "benefit factories" across London, where they created fake documents to support fraudulent Universal Credit claims. The sophisticated scheme involved the group using a library of fake identities used to make fraudulent claims. Each claim was allocated a different mobile number and came attached with a litany of fake documents, including tenancy agreements, counterfeit payslips. Forged letters from GPs, landlords, and employees were also used to bolster the claims. Some of the claims were also made using details from real people, who would pay the gang to use their identities to make the claims on their behalf. The gang used Photoshop to create fake images when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) requested proof of residence. The Universal Credit was paid into hundreds of different bank accounts and then withdrawn by the criminals at the bank. They then laundered the money between various accounts via multiple transfers and cash withdrawals. The gang even went as far as transporting thousands of Bulgarians to London to make fraudulent claims. They would often allow the initial benefit payment to go to the claimant, but then collect the recurring monthly payments for themselves.
