Hanson/In Touch Saints and Scroungers


Hanson/In Touch

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This programme tracks down cheats, exposes fraudsters and brings help to those who really need it.

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This is the front line in the battle against benefit fraud.

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This is Saints And Scroungers.

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Saints And Scroungers is all about busting the benefit cheats who steal millions of pounds every year,

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and the crack teams of fraud investigators determined to expose their scams.

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We also shine a light on those who genuinely need the money

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and the people who help them get it. They are our saints.

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And, coming up on today's programme...

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Living like royalty and hiding her husband.

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-The bogus asylum seeker who wasn't quite who she seemed.

-I was now sure

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that we were dealing with one person that was using two identities.

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And the DIY training scheme that turns the unemployed into handymen

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for pensioners and the disabled.

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It's satisfactory for them, and I go away thinking, "I've helped someone out today."

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But first, the scrounger who's been living like a royal,

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courtesy of the benefit system, while we've been slaving away to pay our taxes.

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What makes this country great is that we give money to people who genuinely need it.

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

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This shadowy figure goes by the name of Queen Hanson,

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but clearly she's not one for making public appearances.

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She claims to have come to the UK seeking asylum

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from war-torn Sierra Leone, in West Africa.

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She also claims to be a hardworking single mum who needs help paying the rent.

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Croydon Council's anti-fraud team suspect that Queen Hanson

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has been living like royalty.

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What's more, we've all been paying for it.

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She is suspected of running a sophisticated scam,

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using dual identities to flout the immigration laws

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and cheat the benefit system out of over £70,000.

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I've come to Croydon to find out more

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about this dodgy-sounding claimant.

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This is one of London's biggest and most diverse boroughs.

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The government's asylum screening unit is based here.

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For many migrants, it's the first place they come, and they make it their home.

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David Hogan is in charge of stopping benefit fraud for the council.

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-Morning, David. Nice to meet you.

-Hello, Dom.

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-Croydon, it's a big town, isn't it?

-It's a very big town.

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You're talking about roughly 350,000 households here in Croydon.

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-It's a huge melting pot here.

-It's a big, diverse mix. Yes.

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-How many people claiming benefits and how much money are we talking?

-Well, we've 38,000 people in Croydon

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that are claiming benefit of one type or another.

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Um...the spend on that is just under £100 million.

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-Woah, think about it weekly - that's nearly two million quid a week.

-It is. It's a huge sum.

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-How much of a drain is that on the council? That's a lot of money.

-It is a lot of money,

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and the council are responsible for ensuring that all of those payments are made correctly.

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But, as we know, they're not always made correctly

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because there are people out there who are looking to take extra money, or money they're not entitled to.

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And David and the fraud team suspect that Queen Hanson is just one of those fraudsters.

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In 2003, they received what looked like

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a legitimate claim for housing benefit and tax credits.

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In the case of Queen Hanson, she presented herself to the council as a single mum of two children,

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working in a local supermarket.

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She told us that she was a UK citizen and that

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she was entitled to receive housing and council tax benefit and she was paid them, on that basis.

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Queen Hanson might have been able to continue claiming benefit

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if the council hadn't run a search on her name with other organisations.

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Using sophisticated computer systems in a process called data matching,

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they discovered she had thousands of pounds of savings.

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Top investigator Gail Campbell was straight on to the case.

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Well, this case came to the council after a data match,

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and that was from the housing benefit matching service.

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It advised us there was undeclared money held in a bank account.

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Even though she was working, Queen Hanson had raked in

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over £45,000 in tax credits, by claiming to be a single mum.

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But clearly she didn't need the money to live on, as she'd opened

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a string of bank accounts to stash it away in.

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If you've more than £16,000 in savings, you're not entitled to benefits,

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and if you don't declare it, you're breaking the law.

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If you find out a claimant has got more than £16,000, what will you do about it?

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It will automatically trigger a fraud investigation. We will look at trying to recover

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all the money we've paid out, from the savings they've got.

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-Every penny?

-Every penny.

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-Interest as well?

-Interest as well, back to the taxpayer.

-Ouch!

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The discovery of the claimant's secret savings were the starting point

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of Croydon Council's investigation. Though she had thousands in the bank,

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she was still claiming to be penniless

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so she could carry on getting housing benefit.

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And the fraud team were about to discover her domestic circumstances were more complicated

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than she was letting on.

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We checked to see whether there was any credit history,

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and that brought back information that showed there was another person

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er...making credit applications from the same address, and...

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his name was Ekhator Ojo-Osagie.

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Hold your horses! Queen Hanson told the council she was a single mum.

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So who was this man living at her address?

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If they were in fact a couple, her housing benefit form

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would have been fraudulent.

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When we did these credit checks,

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we knew that Queen Hanson had made claims for housing benefit

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and she'd made claims from three separate addresses in the borough. We made further checks

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on these addresses and it showed the same male appearing on all the credit checks.

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So it looked as if he'd been at the same address

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at the same time as Queen Hanson.

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Something didn't add up.

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Queen Hanson had only qualified for benefit

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because she claimed to be a single mum.

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If it was now looking like she might not be single after all -

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the team suspected the man she lived with was more than a lodger.

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Was he, in fact, the father of her children?

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Queen Hanson's benefit application

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listed two children, and the children had the same surname, Ojo-Osagie.

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And that linked into the male that we found on the credit checks,

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and that was the surname that was coming up

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on the other checks that we can make.

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The evidence seemed to be stacking up that this was a family.

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But they needed more.

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Mrs Ojo-Osagie had started to claim income support.

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So the Department for Work and Pensions

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were now taking an interest.

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Gail asked them to check if Mr Ojo-Osagie had a paid job.

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The DWP were able to tell us that Ekhator Ojo-Osagie

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was employed by the Royal Mail.

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Queen Hanson had failed not only to declare that she was living with a man,

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but that he had a full-time job.

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A trip down to the Croydon sorting office

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for a little chat with Mr Ojo-Osagie's boss

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proved beyond doubt that they were in fact a family.

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A period of paternity leave had been approved for Mr Ojo-Osagie, and the dates

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of that paternity leave coincided with the birth

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of one of Queen Hanson's children.

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Everybody that knew him

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was aware that he did have a wife, and he had children,

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and he spoke about them a lot

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while he was at work.

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Gail now had evidence that Mr Ojo-Osagie and Queen Hanson were living together as a family.

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All the pieces of the jigsaw were falling into place.

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It was time to confront the suspected fraudster.

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By this stage of the investigation it was quite clear that not only had she undeclared bank accounts,

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but there was a strong possibility that she'd also got an undeclared partner,

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who had an income, so it was felt that it was appropriate

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to bring her in for interview.

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At this stage, Queen Hanson was suspected of lying

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about her circumstances so she could claim benefits.

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But now she had a chance to give her side of the story.

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She came to the interview and she brought a solicitor with her.

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She "no comment"-ed on every question, even when I asked her

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to confirm the names of her children.

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And Queen Hanson's suspected husband, Mr Ojo-Osagie, wasn't particularly co-operative either.

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He did say to me on the telephone

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that he wasn't coming to the interview cos... it wasn't anything to do with him.

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With this pair refusing to co-operate, the fraud team

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were going to have to start digging deep.

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What they didn't yet know was that Queen Hanson was hiding her real identity,

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and if they couldn't unravel this complex fraud,

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she could end up getting away scot-free.

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Coming up,

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The fraud team make a potentially vital discovery.

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This wedding programme

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was an excellent piece of evidence as it showed

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the couple due to be married.

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But will they be able to uncover

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Queen Hanson's real identity?

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From the scroungers defrauding the benefit system

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to the people we call our "saints".

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Individuals and organisations up and down the country

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that go out of their way to offer help to those in genuine need.

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Vulnerable pensioners and unemployed youngsters, two very different groups of people

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that share a common denominator.

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Both could do with a helping hand.

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So, wouldn't it be great if there was a way of combining their problems

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and helping both groups at the same time?

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And that's exactly what a charity called In Touch sets out to do.

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It teaches unemployed people DIY skills

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and offers a handyperson agency to vulnerable old or disabled people.

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We are working with

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younger people, who've had long periods of unemployment,

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and we're helping them back into finding work, and hopefully,

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on to a more prosperous career in the future.

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24-year-old Mark Morley from Larkfield in Kent

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has been out of work for the best part of a year

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after losing his labouring job in London.

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'The training course was my last option.

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'I was beginning to think, "I'm never going to get anywhere."

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'The course started to look more promising.'

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It looked like my sort of...

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My treasure.

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When we're looking at the employment of younger people,

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um...we have to look at it in a way

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which doesn't really take too much account of the skills base. Having the right attitude

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makes all the difference.

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After an anxious wait, things are looking up for Mark.

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He gets that sought-after place on the training scheme.

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I did feel king of the world. I felt like Muhammad Ali in the champions fight, like, literally.

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It brings a sense of inspiration to yourself. You're going to get work,

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you'll get certificates, and stuff. It makes life so much easier.

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Getting a place on the training programme means that Mark

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has been able to stop signing on

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and now he's guaranteed a weekly wage for the next six months.

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Today, Mark's heading out on a job with mentor Danny.

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But I'm keen to see how he's getting on with life as a trainee handyperson

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before he hits the road.

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-Mark!

-Hello.

-Glad to meet you. I'm Dominic.

-How you doing? Nice to meet you.

-Now.

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-You're one of the handypeople here.

-I am indeed.

-Tell me about the day

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-you found out you got it.

-It was like being on heaven.

-Right.

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It was brilliant. I thought, That's it. I've got myself a job. Six months of work.

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That means I can then look after my little girl, I can provide.

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-Yeah.

-I can be a dad, sort of thing.

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-And they're going to train you up to do...

-Yep.

-Quite a good handyman.

-Yep. Basic DIY.

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-It ain't hard stuff.

-Yep.

-You could be putting a shelf up, tap washers in. Little things.

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-You like the work?

-I love the work. It's great. It gives me an insight

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-into how to do little simple DIY for people.

-Yes.

-It's satisfactory for them.

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Makes their life the world better. And I'll go away thinking, "Well, I've helped someone out today."

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-You're a good talker. Am I holding you up?

-I have got customers to see.

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-There probably is a muffin and a cup of tea waiting for me somewhere.

-Going cold.

-Probably going cold.

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-Well get on with it!

-Come on. You should come out with us.

-OK.

-I'll show you how we do.

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I'm heading off with Mark in his new company van.

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We're going to be meeting mentor Danny at today's first job.

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79-year-old Donald Lynch is a retired engineer

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who suffers from muscular degeneration and has extreme difficulty getting around the house.

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With DIY out of the question, Donald's reliant

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on the handyperson service

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for any adaptations he needs to his home.

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And helping people like Donald gives Mark real job satisfaction.

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I'm not just sitting at the dole office looking for jobs every day,

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and seeing everybody else struggle. I'm actually out there making my life

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and people around me's lives a bit easier.

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Today's job is fitting a simple handrail by Donald's patio doors.

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He's having trouble getting in and out of his garden.

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He's got a half-step but he's struggling,

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-still, so we'll pop a handrail up.

-It's the typical sort of job you do?

-Yeah.

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It's a typical sort of job there, so...Like I say, we've just done the screws and rawl plugs,

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and Mark's going to fit it up for us.

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While Mark and Danny crack on, I'm keen to find out just what the handyperson service means

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to customers like Donald.

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In Touch, as an organisation, how many times have you used them?

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-Uh, five.

-OK, quite a few.

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You trust them?

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Yes, they're excellent.

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They're effective, they're on time and they do what they say they will do.

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As simple as that.

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For people like Donald,

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knowing they're not being ripped off by rogue traders or cowboy builders gives peace of mind.

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I was looking for help with this door

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because the little wheel trucks had collapsed.

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I looked in the local paper and this chap turned up, made no attempt

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to inspect what was wrong. He just went outside, looked at it and said,

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"It's ever so old. We can't do anything with it. You need a new door.

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-"We do a wooden one for £1,750."

-Ouch!

-Yeah.

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Then it struck me that In Touch had all the knowledge where they had contractors of their own.

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So I rang up, asked if they could help.

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-Yup.

-They gave me two telephone numbers. I rang the first one.

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He came up, looked at it, gave a price on the spot.

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-How much?

-£200.

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-Instead of 1,700? You've rung the bell, haven't you?

-Yeah.

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But the handyperson service isn't just about turning up and doing the job.

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Danny, Mark and the rest of the team are always on the lookout for other improvements they can make.

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Donald's call to In Touch to assess his loft and new insulation led to another vital job getting done.

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Whilst the young lady was here,

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filling in the forms for the loft insulation,

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he said, "I can smell gas. I think I'd better get a surveyor down."

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He looked at the boiler, "How old is it?" And we worked out 17-22 years old.

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-It was cream-crackered.

-Exactly.

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"So I will submit that you need a replacement boiler."

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Thanks to the scheme, Donald's boiler is safe again and his new handrail

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is ready to use.

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That is brilliant.

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That makes it much easier.

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And there's more good news - a permanent position has come up with the handyperson service.

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Even though he's only been with In Touch for two months,

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Mark's got the job.

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-Mark, I hear things are looking up for you.

-Things are looking up.

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I have got a full-time job

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so I am now fully employed.

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You keep clapping your hands like that, someone will chuck you a fish!

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-Love it!

-You're excited?

-I am excited cos now I've got a full-time job.

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That means constant work, constant pay.

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It makes my life all the more easy.

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Just a few months ago, Mark had almost given up hope of getting a job. Now he's graduated

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to being a permanent member of staff, the future is looking much brighter.

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It's an absolute pleasure for me to give you this certificate of achievement

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-and really wish you a very long and prosperous career.

-Thank you.

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-So congratulations, Mark.

-Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

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-Well done.

-Thank you.

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THEY WHOOP AND APPLAUD

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Mark's going to go a long way.

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From when he first started training to where he is now,

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I'm very proud of him. I know he's going to be a decent handyperson.

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Helping the vulnerable and training up the unemployed.

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Sometimes it's the simplest of ideas that are quite genius.

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And it's projects like this that show exactly what can be done

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when a bit of creative thought goes into tackling problems.

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It's the best of both worlds.

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And I for one hope it continues to flourish.

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Now it's back to Croydon,

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as the case against benefit cheat Queen Hanson hots up.

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The council and the Department for Work and Pensions

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suspect that by using a false identity,

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she's been able to flout the immigration laws

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and illegally claim over £70,000 of us taxpayers' money.

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Posing as a single mum and using the name Queen Hanson,

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this suspected fraudster was hiding the fact that she was living

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with a man who had a full-time job.

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But this enabled her to steal thousands of pounds of benefits

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that she wasn't entitled to.

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It was time to knock this fake queen off her throne.

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Top investigator Gail Campbell of the Croydon fraud team

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was leading the investigation.

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Not only had she undeclared bank accounts,

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but there was a strong possibility that she'd also got

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-an undeclared partner.

-If true, this would have affected

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her claim to benefits.

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When Queen Hanson was brought in for questioning,

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she answered "no comment" to all the allegations that were put to her.

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The man Gail suspected to be Queen Hanson's partner

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was also declining to be interviewed.

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So, it was time to turn up the heat.

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Mr Ojo-Osagie was arrested,

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while the fraud team led a search of the house they shared.

0:19:570:20:00

By this stage, they'd suspected that Queen Hanson

0:20:000:20:04

wasn't who she said she was. They were hoping the proof they needed

0:20:040:20:07

would be in the house they both lived in.

0:20:070:20:10

Found in the bedroom upstairs were some certificates,

0:20:100:20:14

and these certificates were in the name of Adesuwa Ojo-Osagie.

0:20:140:20:18

Hang on a minute.

0:20:180:20:21

This was supposed to be Queen Hanson's house.

0:20:210:20:24

But investigators had just found a document in the name of a woman

0:20:240:20:27

who shares the same surname as Queen Hanson's partner,

0:20:270:20:30

Mr Ojo-Osagie.

0:20:300:20:32

Mr Ojo-Osagie was asked at the time to explain

0:20:320:20:36

who that person was and he said it was his sister.

0:20:360:20:38

Sister? A very unlikely story.

0:20:380:20:42

And no-one was convinced by this explanation.

0:20:420:20:45

Don't forget, the fraud team already know that Mr Ojo-Osagie took

0:20:450:20:49

paternity leave when Queen Hanson gave birth to her third child.

0:20:490:20:53

Gail was convinced that Queen Hanson was a false identity,

0:20:530:20:57

used by Adesuwa Ojo-Osagie to conceal her marriage.

0:20:570:21:01

I was now sure that we were dealing with one person

0:21:010:21:05

that was using two identities.

0:21:050:21:06

Now, this could start getting complicated

0:21:090:21:11

so let me break it down for you.

0:21:110:21:13

Queen Hanson comes into the UK as a single mum.

0:21:130:21:16

She starts working and claiming benefits.

0:21:160:21:20

It's discovered she has savings she hasn't declared

0:21:200:21:23

and there are three people registered as living in her house -

0:21:230:21:26

Mr and Mrs Ojo-Asagie and Queen Hanson herself.

0:21:260:21:31

But there was something else.

0:21:310:21:33

Documents with Mrs Asagie's name on

0:21:330:21:35

showed her to be Nigerian, whereas documents in Queen Hanson's name

0:21:350:21:41

from when she entered the country as an asylum seeker claim she was from war-torn Sierra Leone.

0:21:410:21:47

Now, as well as being

0:21:470:21:48

a benefit fraud investigation, this was now turning into an immigration case as well.

0:21:480:21:53

It was time for Gail and the Croydon fraud team to contact the UK Border Agency.

0:21:530:21:59

They're responsible for controlling migration into Britain and removing any migrants

0:21:590:22:03

who break our immigration laws.

0:22:030:22:06

Tina Lyonette is one of their top investigators.

0:22:060:22:09

To get to the bottom

0:22:090:22:10

of this identity puzzle, she began by checking back through the immigration records.

0:22:100:22:14

'So when Croydon Council came to me, they gave me three names to look at.

0:22:160:22:21

'We had Queen Hanson,'

0:22:210:22:23

Ekhator Ojo-Asagie and Adesuwa Ojo-Osagie.

0:22:230:22:29

Tina started with the name at the top of her list - Queen Hanson.

0:22:290:22:33

The records showed

0:22:330:22:34

that she'd first arrived in the UK almost 20 years ago on a Sierra Leone passport.

0:22:340:22:39

It was easy to find Queen Hanson.

0:22:390:22:41

There was a Home Office file on her that showed that she'd claimed asylum

0:22:410:22:46

back in the '90s and that had been refused initially.

0:22:460:22:50

Knowing she was eventually likely to be deported,

0:22:500:22:54

in 1997 she asked for her passport back,

0:22:540:22:57

explaining she wanted to get married.

0:22:570:23:00

For a while, Queen Hanson disappeared completely off the map.

0:23:000:23:04

So Tina's next step was to look into the immigration records

0:23:060:23:09

for Adesuwa Ojo-Asagie.

0:23:090:23:11

Adesuwa had applied for a visit visa in 2002,

0:23:110:23:15

and her husband, as well.

0:23:150:23:17

Her husband, of course, being named on the visa application as Ekhator Ojo-Osagie,

0:23:170:23:23

had a legitimate right to work in the UK.

0:23:230:23:26

Adesuwa was only allowed to enter as a visitor.

0:23:260:23:29

Soon though, she was hatching a plan to try and stay.

0:23:290:23:33

His wife, Mrs Ojo-Osagie, applied to become his dependant,

0:23:330:23:38

alongside her children. That application was refused.

0:23:380:23:41

So, in the name of Adesuwa Ojo-Osagie,

0:23:410:23:43

she had no leave to remain in the UK as a dependant.

0:23:430:23:47

Adesuwa's appeals for a visa failed in 2006.

0:23:490:23:53

But in the same year, Queen Hanson resurfaced,

0:23:550:23:58

pursuing her asylum claim.

0:23:580:24:00

She tells the Home Office that she's not received the decision

0:24:030:24:06

about her asylum claim.

0:24:060:24:08

The Home Office say to her, "You've been refused". She said, "I didn't get the letter".

0:24:080:24:12

So she puts in another application.

0:24:120:24:14

But Queen Hanson's determination to claim asylum supplied Tina with the vital piece of evidence she needed.

0:24:140:24:20

The photograph of Adesuwa matched the photograph that Gail had of Queen Hanson.

0:24:200:24:27

That shows a clear connection between the two identities.

0:24:270:24:30

At last, she'd cracked it.

0:24:300:24:33

Tina had proved that Queen Hanson and Adesuwa Ojo-Osagie

0:24:330:24:36

were, in fact, the same woman.

0:24:360:24:38

It was time for Gail and the fraud team to bring her in.

0:24:380:24:41

And even more evidence was about to turn up that proved Queen Hanson and Mr Ojo-Osagie were married.

0:24:410:24:48

We arranged for another arrest to be made of the couple

0:24:480:24:52

and a thorough search of the property and the most damning document that we found

0:24:520:25:00

when we searched the property was a wedding programme.

0:25:000:25:03

This wedding programme was an excellent piece of evidence

0:25:030:25:07

because it showed the couple that were due to be married,

0:25:070:25:11

it listed their named in full - the lady in the wedding programme was Adesuwa Ojo-Osagie

0:25:110:25:19

and we already knew this lady as Queen Hanson.

0:25:190:25:24

In July 2009, the council had all the proof they needed

0:25:300:25:34

to bring this fraud case before Croydon Crown Court.

0:25:340:25:38

Faced with the overwhelming evidence presented to the court,

0:25:380:25:41

she pleaded guilty to...

0:25:410:25:43

Mr Ojo-Osagie was charged with...

0:25:590:26:01

The charges were left on file.

0:26:040:26:08

She's used a false identity since 1991.

0:26:080:26:11

She's accessed benefit systems while she's been using that false identity.

0:26:110:26:15

I am quite thrilled that everything has gone our way and she's been convicted and rightly so.

0:26:150:26:21

Queen Hanson has been sentenced to eight months in prison, and there's more good news for Croydon Council.

0:26:210:26:28

Using the Proceeds of Crime Act, she's been ordered to repay the entire amount

0:26:280:26:33

that she's cheated out of the benefit system.

0:26:330:26:36

This case is a great example of the powers that local councils now have.

0:26:360:26:41

Not only can we get a successful conviction,

0:26:410:26:44

but we can confiscate assets that we say are the proceeds of crime.

0:26:440:26:49

Mrs Ojo-Osagie has also had her second appeal against deportation refused.

0:26:490:26:55

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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