Pathmanathan/Amy and Friends Saints and Scroungers

We give money to people in need but the problem is

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

Welcome to the world of Saints & Scroungers.

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

the taxpayers, and it searches out the saints,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meet the Pathmanathans, originally from Sri Lanka,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Put it in a nutshell. What is housing benefit?

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

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

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

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

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

allowance and the people that are still on housing benefit.

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

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

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

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

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

-What alerted you to this case?

-We had an anonymous tip-off in that

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

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

But it snowballed from there.

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

She had been claiming benefits from an address in Clayton Avenue

as a single woman renting from a private landlord.

We'll call this Property A.

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

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

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

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

but the tenancy has to be on a commercial basis.

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

And you need proof?

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

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

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

The starting point for this case is the application form where

benefit claimants have to declare their circumstances.

This is usually where the lies begin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But Simon didn't stop his investigations there.

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

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

and we see who the claimant is there.

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

giving a different landlord.

The Land Registry again confirms that that property is indeed owned

by Premkumar and another brother, Pathkumar.

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

Hang on a minute. Talk about close-knit.

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

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

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

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

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

And then Simon discovered something else.

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

Harrow. The case is expanding across London.

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

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

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

The senior investigator at Harrow is Sonia Muckerjee.

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

to tell us that they were investigating Sinniah,

who is the father of the family.

And as a result, the landlord of Clayton Avenue

had given an address in Northolt,

and the person who claimed to be owning the Northolt address

was actually our benefit claimant.

The Harrow housing benefit claimant

is another Pathmanathan, called Pathmakumar.

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

where dad Sinniah is alleged to be living,

but it's the same old story.

He made no mention of owning a property in Brent

on the housing benefit claim form he submitted to Harrow.

The investigation had now been underway for six months,

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

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

the team over at Harrow discovered a fourth house,

Martin Drive, Property D.

It was the same pattern.

The house was owned by two family members

but with benefits being claimed by another family member,

and in this case, it was the original claimant,

Kalaivany's husband, Premkumar.

The circle was now complete.

This was turning out to be a fraud

on an unprecedented scale for Harrow and Brent investigators.

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

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

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

complicated, difficult to unpick,

which made it one of our bigger cases.

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

Harrow and Brent just needed to prove it.

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

If they could get photographic evidence

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

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

-How long did you watch them for?

-They weren't really long periods of time,

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

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

After three months,

the investigators had the photographic evidence they needed

to prove that some family members were using different addresses

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

During the surveillance of these people,

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

You're entitled to do a check on them.

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

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

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

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

worth in the London market over £1.5 million,

they've also had enough spare cash

to bomb around in top-end luxury cars.

The team were now tantalising close

to shutting down the Pathmanathan family business.

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

these losses come straight out of the public purse.

It's taxpayers' money.

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

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

When you get one family group abstracting this sort of money

to create what's essentially a property portfolio,

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

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

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

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

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

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

We need to talk to you about your benefits.

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

those individuals who help put money into the pockets

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

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

Imagine finding out that one of your children

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

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

and make the most of those precious years together.

Jane Hughes is facing exactly that scenario.

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

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

Life is tough for them both.

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

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

What was actually wrong with her?

She just, to them, had an unusual look.

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

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

She looks older than her age.

Amy's unusual look baffled doctors.

They had no idea what was wrong with her.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The benefits went some way to help Jane and Amy

get on with their lives.

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

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

-Had you researched what it was?

-I'd gone on the internet and spent

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

Cockayne syndrome is a rare genetic disorder

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It meant going blind, going deaf, having strokes,

losing the ability to walk, talk,

a short life expectancy...

So they actually age very rapidly?

Yeah, very premature ageing. Yeah.

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

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

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

Jane found the strength to turn her attention to helping

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

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

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

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

Even doctors come to me and ask questions.

Having experienced her own financial hardships,

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

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

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

Thomas, was diagnosed with the syndrome three years ago.

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

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

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

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

Oi! No chasing me!

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

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

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

a possible medication for the treatment of Cockayne syndrome.

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

And does anybody have any questions about that?

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

This year's retreat is fabulous.

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

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

It just makes everything worthwhile, doesn't it?

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

And they obviously don't, do they?

We're all one big group.

People like Amy and her mum really are incredible people.

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

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

In my book, people like this are real saints.

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

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

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

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

They're called the Pathmanathans.

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

fabricating their tenancy agreements

in order to steal over £168,000

in housing and council tax benefits

and they used it to build a property portfolio.

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

We've got surnames and forenames being switched around,

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

and in benefit claims

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

Surveillance had provided some photographic evidence

that family members were using and possibly living

at different address than those quoted on

their benefit claim forms and fraud investigator

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

So you've got two types of fraud here.

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

a tenancy contrived to take advantage of the scheme,

so, essentially, the housing benefit that is being paid

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So the officers arrived about half seven.

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

at quarter to eight so that people were knocking

on the door at the same time.

-Yes.

-We need to talk to you about your benefit.

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

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

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

Welcome to house swap central.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

who was registered for benefits at THAT address.

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

Kajani had just answered the door back in Clayton Avenue.

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

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

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

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

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

-Effectively.

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

set to work stashing away major assets

to avoid confiscation by the authorities.

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

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

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

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

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

I would describe the family group as a deceitful

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

defendants were found guilty - a fantastic result.

Just Kajani was found to be innocent of any crime.

One month later, and the Pathmanathan eight were

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

After a tense wait, news is finally in.

Premkumar is sentenced to 14 months in prison.

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

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

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

both received a suspended sentence of a year each.

In addition,

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

plus profit made by the family through their criminal activity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

we have served justice for the taxpayer in stating to people

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

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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