Pathmanathan/Amy and Friends Saints and Scroungers


Pathmanathan/Amy and Friends

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Transcript


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We give money to people in need but the problem is

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wherever there's money, there are people who want to steal it.

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Welcome to the world of Saints & Scroungers.

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Saints & Scroungers expose the benefit thieves who ruthlessly steal millions every year from us,

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the taxpayers, and it searches out the saints,

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those who put unclaimed cash into the pockets of people who need it

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and the people who are too proud or simply don't know how to claim what they're entitled to.

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And coming up on today's programme: the family who cheated the benefits

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system to build a property empire worth £1.5 million...

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When you get one family group abstracting this sort of money,

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it's not a need thing, that's greed.

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and a remarkable mum whose daughter's rare condition has inspired her to help others.

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It meant going blind, going deaf, having strokes...

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But first, the family of fraudsters who used benefits to build their property empire.

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The thing about benefit fraudsters is some of them aren't exactly honest about where they live.

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That's one of their little tricks. I mean, take me at this address.

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Now, if I got my mail here, you might think that I live here.

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Morning. But what about if I actually lived at this address? Confused?

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Well, pity the poor investigators who had to deal with nine suspects and four different houses.

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Meet the Pathmanathans, originally from Sri Lanka,

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a large, close-knit family living in north-west London.

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On paper, they appear to be a low-income family struggling to make ends meet.

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In fact, times have been so tough they've needed help to pay the rent on their four homes

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and over the last 14 years have received over £168,000 in housing and council-tax benefits.

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But a tip-off to Brent council's Fraud Investigation Unit

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has placed the Pathmanathan family under suspicion of running a massive housing benefit scam.

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I'm off to meet head of fraud Simon Lane to find out more.

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Put it in a nutshell. What is housing benefit?

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Well, you can get housing benefit if you're renting, if you're

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on a low income or no income, and it's a means-tested benefit

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the Government pays through local authorities to help you with your rent.

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Give me an idea - in Brent, compared to the UK, how much do you spend on it?

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Our bill last year was over 300 million for both local housing

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allowance and the people that are still on housing benefit.

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In the UK, the UK spends about £20 billion nationally on housing benefit.

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Those are astronomical figures. You've shocked me with that.

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Yeah, a large bit of the bill for the country is on housing benefit.

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Where there's money, there's people prepared to pilfer it,

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and Simon Lane believes the Pathmanathan family might be doing exactly that.

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-What alerted you to this case?

-We had an anonymous tip-off in that

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Kalaivany Pathmanathan was claiming to be a single claimant at an address

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when in fact she was living with her husband at that address.

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But it snowballed from there.

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So an anonymous tip-off saying this woman, Kalaivany, was lying to the council.

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She had been claiming benefits from an address in Clayton Avenue

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as a single woman renting from a private landlord.

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We'll call this Property A.

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Now, if she is living with her husband in this house, she could be in a spot of bother.

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The question is, is it actually illegal to rent from a relative?

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The rules are complicated. You can't rent from a close relative if they're living in the property with you.

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There are limited circumstances where you can rent from a close relative,

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but the tenancy has to be on a commercial basis.

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The property had been rented in the past on a commercial basis.

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And you need proof?

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Yeah, you need proof of that, and you can't set up a tenancy to contrive to take advantage of the benefit scheme.

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The fraud team's sole mission is to stamp out benefit fraud, and a tip-off about Kalaivany

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was enough for Brent Council to launch a full-scale investigation.

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The starting point for this case is the application form where

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benefit claimants have to declare their circumstances.

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This is usually where the lies begin.

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So Simon immediately turns his attention to Kalaivany's original application.

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No evidence that it's been declared that the husband is the owner, and we do a Land Registry check.

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That shows that the husband, Premkumar, and his brother Sivakumar own the property.

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On her original claim, Kalaivany said the landlord was a Mr P Sivakumar.

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It now seemed that devious Kalaivany had simply swapped her brother-in-law,

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Sivakumar Pathmanathan's, first and last name around to hide the family connection.

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But Simon didn't stop his investigations there.

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In various financial checks on the property, principally Credit Reference Agency checks

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which give a link to the adjoining property in Clayton Avenue,

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and we see who the claimant is there.

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It turns out that father Sinniah is claiming at that address,

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giving a different landlord.

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The Land Registry again confirms that that property is indeed owned

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by Premkumar and another brother, Pathkumar.

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No indication that the father has declared that on his tenancy agreement.

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Hang on a minute. Talk about close-knit.

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According to the claim forms, dad Sinniah is renting a room in a house

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we'll call Property B from an agent named Sittampalam Soundrasritharan,

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and this house is conveniently right next door to where Kalaivany is allegedly living alone.

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But checks show that the house is in fact jointly owned by two of Sinniah's sons

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and the mysterious agent Sittampalam is in fact one of his son-in-laws.

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And then Simon discovered something else.

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The details we get for Sinniah give us a link to an address in Harrow.

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Harrow. The case is expanding across London.

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Sinniah's claim forms refer to a house in Minehead Road, Property C.

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The problem is it's over the council border, so fraud teams at Harrow are alerted, and they immediately agree

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to work with Brent to see where all this is leading.

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The senior investigator at Harrow is Sonia Muckerjee.

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We first became aware of the case when we were contacted by Brent investigators

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to tell us that they were investigating Sinniah,

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who is the father of the family.

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And as a result, the landlord of Clayton Avenue

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had given an address in Northolt,

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and the person who claimed to be owning the Northolt address

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was actually our benefit claimant.

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The Harrow housing benefit claimant

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is another Pathmanathan, called Pathmakumar.

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He's one of the sons who co-owns Property B back in Clayton Avenue

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where dad Sinniah is alleged to be living,

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but it's the same old story.

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He made no mention of owning a property in Brent

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on the housing benefit claim form he submitted to Harrow.

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The investigation had now been underway for six months,

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and fraud investigators are working flat out to try and piece the puzzle together.

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And just when it couldn't get any more complicated,

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the team over at Harrow discovered a fourth house,

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Martin Drive, Property D.

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It was the same pattern.

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The house was owned by two family members

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but with benefits being claimed by another family member,

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and in this case, it was the original claimant,

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Kalaivany's husband, Premkumar.

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The circle was now complete.

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This was turning out to be a fraud

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on an unprecedented scale for Harrow and Brent investigators.

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I think the size of this one in terms of value makes it quite unique.

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168,000 is a lot of money to lose from one family group.

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So in that sense, it was a big case for us -

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complicated, difficult to unpick,

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which made it one of our bigger cases.

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With the strong suspicion that they were dealing with a massive organised family scam,

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Harrow and Brent just needed to prove it.

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And they came up with a plan to put the whole family under surveillance.

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If they could get photographic evidence

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that no-one was living where they said they were on their claim form,

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the fraud teams would be one step nearer to a prosecution.

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-How long did you watch them for?

-They weren't really long periods of time,

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but various days, trying to establish who was coming and going,

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principally in the mornings, when children are dropped off at school.

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After three months,

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the investigators had the photographic evidence they needed

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to prove that some family members were using different addresses

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than those quoted on their claim forms, and there was more.

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During the surveillance of these people,

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you notice what vehicles are on the driveway or outside of the house.

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You're entitled to do a check on them.

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We find that the family are driving a Porsche and a BMW,

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you know, not really the sort of vehicle you'd associate with a genuine benefit claimant.

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So it seems this family group have not only been using our tax money

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to pay off each other's mortgages on their four properties,

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worth in the London market over £1.5 million,

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they've also had enough spare cash

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to bomb around in top-end luxury cars.

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The team were now tantalising close

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to shutting down the Pathmanathan family business.

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I think what's frustrating with all benefit fraud is the fact that

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these losses come straight out of the public purse.

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It's taxpayers' money.

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It's money that, you know, where the people are not entitled to it,

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could be used for either genuine claimants or for other public benefit.

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When you get one family group abstracting this sort of money

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to create what's essentially a property portfolio,

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it's not a need thing, that's greed.

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Although the fraud team knew exactly who they were dealing with,

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they still a long way to go before they could get this family sent down.

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The surveillance photographs alone were not enough to ensure a conviction.

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They had to come up with a plan, a plan that would net all of them at the same time.

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Later in the show, the Pathmanathans get a very rude awakening.

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We need to talk to you about your benefits.

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From the scroungers ripping off the system to the people we call our saints,

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those individuals who help put money into the pockets

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of people in genuine need and the people who are too proud

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or simply don't know how to claim what's due to them.

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Imagine finding out that one of your children

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had a rare genetic condition and may not live past their teens.

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You have to give up your job, become a full-time carer

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and make the most of those precious years together.

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Jane Hughes is facing exactly that scenario.

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Her 18-year-old daughter Amy has a rare genetic condition

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and she's not expected to live much further into adulthood.

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Life is tough for them both.

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When she was born, I remember saying, "What have I had?

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"Is it a girl or a boy?" Nobody was answering.

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What was actually wrong with her?

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She just, to them, had an unusual look.

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To me, she just looked like a tiny baby - which she was, she was only 2lb 11.

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Lots and lots and lots of people said she looks like she's been here before.

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She looks older than her age.

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Amy's unusual look baffled doctors.

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They had no idea what was wrong with her.

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All Jane knew was her plans to return to her job in insurance were in tatters.

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When you had to give up work, how did you find the benefits system?

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Well, when I gave up work, I didn't claim any benefits, because I actually didn't realise you could.

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With her income slashed financially, she was in dire straits, and it was a difficult time.

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'But then, when Amy was five, a friend threw Jane a lifeline.'

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Somebody mentioned to me, "Does she get Disability Living Allowance?",

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because, you know, we knew then there was a problem from the geneticist.

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And so I claimed Disability Living Allowance, and they back-paid to birth, and also later on

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I claimed Invalid Care Allowance for myself, because I wasn't working and I was classed as her carer.

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The benefits went some way to help Jane and Amy

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get on with their lives.

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But by her early teens, Amy was still nowhere near to getting a diagnosis.

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Desperate for answers, Jane took matters into her own hands.

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-Had you researched what it was?

-I'd gone on the internet and spent

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months and months researching, and I'd come across Cockayne syndrome on the internet.

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Cockayne syndrome is a rare genetic disorder

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characterised by short stature and the appearance of premature ageing, symptoms which described Amy to a T.

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I'd kept on and on and on to the medical profession, "I think this is what it is,"

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and they wouldn't have it that it was that.

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When she was deteriorating so badly, and wasn't getting any treatment,

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that we just couldn't live like that any longer,

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we put a story in our local paper to try and get a doctor

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in the UK to try and help us, and the article went across to America.

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Somebody from America got in touch and told us of a doctor that specialised in Cockayne syndrome,

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because I'd mentioned I thought it was that in the article.

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Having made contact with Jane, the doctor in Boston had agreed there was a possibility

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Amy may have this rare syndrome, but the only way to know for sure was to meet in person.

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So he invited Amy and her mum to attend a Cockayne syndrome conference.

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I couldn't wait to see the doctor. I just kept looking around for him to walk in.

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And as he got up to her, he just turned to me and he said,

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"Without a shadow of a doubt, she's got Cockayne syndrome."

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At last Jane had the diagnosis, but it came with the knowledge of what this meant for her daughter.

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It meant going blind, going deaf, having strokes,

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losing the ability to walk, talk,

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a short life expectancy...

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So they actually age very rapidly?

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Yeah, very premature ageing. Yeah.

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I mean, Amy's been lucky to get to 18 and lucky, in some ways -

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in all the families I've met now, very lucky.

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But as the doctors in America said, the children who live longer suffer longer.

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Jane found the strength to turn her attention to helping

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others affected by the syndrome, and in 2007, she launched a charity - Amy and Friends.

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And Jane has now become an unofficial ambassador for the condition.

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I try and support as many people as I can who have anything to do with

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Cockayne syndrome, so whether it be the families, brothers and sisters, teachers.

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Even doctors come to me and ask questions.

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Having experienced her own financial hardships,

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Jane is particularly passionate about making sure families get all the benefits they deserve,

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and she's fully aware that sometimes it's pride that stops people claiming what is rightfully theirs.

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Catherine came across the charity when her six-year-old son,

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Thomas, was diagnosed with the syndrome three years ago.

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We were very reluctant at first to look at benefits, because you feel like you can cope and you feel like

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you've always coped in the past and that you don't need any help.

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But actually, you do need help, because Thomas does need more support,

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'in some ways, than the average six-year-old child.'

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Oi! No chasing me!

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Jane also organises an annual weekend retreat, a major event that brings together families

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affected by Cockayne syndrome from around the world as well as some of the leading doctors in the field.

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We have begun to test at a Children's Hospital in Boston

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a possible medication for the treatment of Cockayne syndrome.

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For the parents, it's a precious chance to learn more about the condition.

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And does anybody have any questions about that?

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For the kids, it's a chance to have fun and some experiences they'll remember forever.

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This year's retreat is fabulous.

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There's so many more people, and we're in a better venue, really.

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We've got loads of entertainment and excitement and the doctors come to see the children.

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It just makes everything worthwhile, doesn't it?

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I do this so that Amy's life isn't in vain and just to help others, you know, not feel so isolated.

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And they obviously don't, do they?

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We're all one big group.

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People like Amy and her mum really are incredible people.

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Not only are they dealing with all their challenges head-on,

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they're also using their experience to help other people cope with this devastating condition.

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In my book, people like this are real saints.

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And now it's back to the world of the scrounger.

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In northwest London, Brent and Harrow council fraud investigators are a tad confused.

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They have four properties, each with tenants claiming housing benefit,

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but mysteriously, all the houses seem to be owned by different members of the same extended family.

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They're called the Pathmanathans.

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Fraud teams from Harrow and Brent councils suspect the family has been

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fabricating their tenancy agreements

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in order to steal over £168,000

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in housing and council tax benefits

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and they used it to build a property portfolio.

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We're trying to build a picture of who is related to who.

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We've got surnames and forenames being switched around,

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but we're clear the name Pathmanathan is appearing frequently on Land Registry searches

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and in benefit claims

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so we know that there's some sort of family group operating.

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Surveillance had provided some photographic evidence

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that family members were using and possibly living

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at different address than those quoted on

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their benefit claim forms and fraud investigator

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Simon Lane was now convinced that this family was up to no good.

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So you've got two types of fraud here.

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One is non-declaration of an asset, ie a property, and the other is

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a tenancy contrived to take advantage of the scheme,

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so, essentially, the housing benefit that is being paid

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out to these people is paying the mortgages on the properties.

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And those four properties in the London market were worth in total £1.5 million.

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No wonder Brent and Harrow were determined to put this swindling family in front of a judge.

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But to ensure a conviction, they still needed more hard evidence.

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So the investigators planned an ambush, a co-ordinated sting

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involving Harrow and Brent's fraud teams and the police.

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The plan was to knock at the Pathmanathans' houses simultaneously in the hope

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of catching the family members all living at different addresses to those stated on their claim forms.

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We co-ordinated three visits at three separate properties, two in this borough, one in Harrow.

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So the officers arrived about half seven.

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We had a little bit of a briefing beforehand and a co-ordinated sting, if you want to call it that,

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at quarter to eight so that people were knocking

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on the door at the same time.

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-Yes.

-We need to talk to you about your benefit.

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The reason that we wanted to go simultaneously was to ensure that

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no phone calls or people could not move from one address if we'd maybe visited 15 or 20 minutes apart.

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Just as the fraud team had suspected, no-one was living where they said they were.

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Welcome to house swap central.

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At the original property in Clayton Avenue, where Kalaivany was supposed to be living alone,

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surprise, surprise, her husband was hanging out in the back garden.

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At the adjoining property in Clayton Avenue, where the head of the family, Mr Sinniah Pathmanathan,

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was supposed to be living, Kajani, the wife of one of the sons, answered the door.

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Now, she was meant to be living in Minehead Road,

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but when the police went there, one of the Pathmanathans' daughters, Shamini, answered.

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Now, she came up with a little story claiming to be Kajani, the woman

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who was registered for benefits at THAT address.

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Now, that was hardly likely to fool the Fraud Squad, seeing as the real

0:23:220:23:25

Kajani had just answered the door back in Clayton Avenue.

0:23:250:23:30

So already at this point you know you've rung the bell, don't you?

0:23:300:23:33

Yeah. Yeah, we're pretty confident that we've now got a good case.

0:23:330:23:37

People aren't where they say they're supposed to be.

0:23:370:23:39

We've got evidence of a partner living with...

0:23:390:23:43

-You caught them with their pants down, didn't you?

-Effectively.

0:23:430:23:45

But before the case came to court, the Pathmanathans, who clearly knew their 14-year-old scam was up,

0:23:470:23:53

set to work stashing away major assets

0:23:530:23:55

to avoid confiscation by the authorities.

0:23:550:23:59

They were busy trying to get rid of any assets they owned, because they

0:23:590:24:04

feared that should the court case come to fruition these assets would be confiscated from them.

0:24:040:24:10

Their luxury cars were the first to vanish, and then one of the houses

0:24:110:24:16

worth £250,000 was sold off to a family member for just 25 grand.

0:24:160:24:23

But for Simon Lane, this just confirmed everything he thought about the Pathmanathans.

0:24:230:24:28

I would describe the family group as a deceitful

0:24:300:24:34

family group intent on defrauding the public purse from the outset in order to get their properties paid for.

0:24:340:24:40

After three years' hard graft, nothing was going to stop

0:24:400:24:44

Brent and Harrow fraud teams putting this deceitful family in court.

0:24:440:24:49

A hearing was set for May 2010, but after the charges were put

0:24:510:24:55

to them, just three of the nine family members pleaded guilty.

0:24:550:24:59

The rest were determined to take it to trial by judge and jury.

0:24:590:25:04

When a final verdict was returned, an impressive five of the six

0:25:040:25:09

defendants were found guilty - a fantastic result.

0:25:090:25:12

Just Kajani was found to be innocent of any crime.

0:25:120:25:16

One month later, and the Pathmanathan eight were

0:25:180:25:21

back for sentencing, with Simon Lane and Sonia Muckerjee in attendance to ensure justice was done.

0:25:210:25:27

After a tense wait, news is finally in.

0:25:310:25:35

Premkumar is sentenced to 14 months in prison.

0:25:370:25:41

Sivakumar gets six months, and it's the same for Shamini.

0:25:410:25:45

Her husband Nalliah is sentenced to 15 months, as is Pathmakumar.

0:25:450:25:51

Son-in-law Sittampalam was given a ten-month suspended sentence, while dad Sinniah and Kalaivany

0:25:510:25:59

both received a suspended sentence of a year each.

0:25:590:26:02

In addition,

0:26:040:26:06

the prosecution will seek to recoup the £168,000 they've stolen in benefits

0:26:060:26:12

plus profit made by the family through their criminal activity.

0:26:120:26:16

And as for those disposed-of assets, a financial investigation

0:26:170:26:22

will ensure that they will factor in the final compensation hearing.

0:26:220:26:26

We would classify this is a big success for us. A long investigation,

0:26:260:26:31

a long, drawn-out prosecution, you know, numerous witnesses,

0:26:310:26:35

numerous defendants, and we've got a good result at the end of it.

0:26:350:26:37

We are happy. It's been a long, complicated case, and we believe by bringing these defendants to court,

0:26:400:26:47

we have served justice for the taxpayer in stating to people

0:26:470:26:51

who defraud the system that we will take you to court.

0:26:510:26:54

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