0:00:02 > 0:00:03Welcome to Saints and Scroungers,
0:00:03 > 0:00:07the show that exposes benefit thieves, cheats and liars,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10but it does also unearth the people that genuinely need help.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14This is the front-line in the battle against benefit fraud.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39Saints and Scroungers exposes the benefit thieves
0:00:39 > 0:00:42who ruthlessly steal millions of pounds every year
0:00:42 > 0:00:44from the British taxpayer,
0:00:44 > 0:00:49and the crack teams of fraud investigators determined to put an end to their devious scams.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52We also turn the spotlight on the people who are too proud
0:00:52 > 0:00:58or simply don't know how to claim and those who help others get what they're due. These people,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00we call the Saints.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02And coming up on today's programme...
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Living off the State and lauding it up in luxury,
0:01:05 > 0:01:09a scrounger of the highest order comes under scrutiny.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14Here we had what was clearly a greed, motivated application for benefit.
0:01:14 > 0:01:19And the scheme designed to help the young and unemployed reach their full potential.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23It's crazy to see where I've come from, to actually be here.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31But first, the scrounger who has been living like a king, courtesy of Government handouts.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37The jet-set lifestyle, eh.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40Sailing off on a whim to one of your fancy holiday apartments abroad.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42But let me tell you something.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44These little beauties don't come cheap,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48they're the ultimate in luxury living with a price tag to match.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52So the chances are, if you can afford one of these little beauties,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55you probably wouldn't need to be filling in one of these.
0:01:57 > 0:02:0169-year-old John Watkinson would have us believe
0:02:01 > 0:02:02he's reached rock bottom.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04He used to run his own business
0:02:04 > 0:02:07before it went under in the late '90s.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11But thanks to the benefit system,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15John managed to keep his AND his wife's head above water.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20Unfortunately for John, things are about to get a whole lot worse,
0:02:20 > 0:02:25because a crack team of Wirral fraud investigators suspected he'd been up to no good.
0:02:25 > 0:02:27They believed he'd systematically
0:02:27 > 0:02:31cheated the taxpayer out of over £118,000
0:02:31 > 0:02:35and was living a secret millionaire lifestyle.
0:02:39 > 0:02:46I've travelled to the north-west of England to find out more about this dodgy sounding claimant.
0:02:46 > 0:02:52I'm on the Wirral, a peninsula just across the Mersey from Liverpool.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56It's home to some of the country's richest and poorest households.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59I'm here to meet the man in charge of fraud for Wirral Council,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Malcolm Flanagan.
0:03:05 > 0:03:07When I drove through the Wirral today,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12what really struck me is how there was some very deprived areas,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16right, slap-bang next door to some very affluent ones.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18- Is that a fair reflection of the Wirral?- Absolutely.
0:03:18 > 0:03:25We've got many areas that are old, terraced houses, old council estates,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28very close to some of the nicest areas in the north-west of England.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32Presumably you've got a lot of new money, footballers... You smirked there,
0:03:32 > 0:03:36- there's some wealthy footballers? - One or two wealthy footballers there
0:03:36 > 0:03:38- and some wealthy ex-managers as well. - Yeah!
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Give me an idea about your department.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43I'm responsible for revenues and benefits at Wirral -
0:03:43 > 0:03:46collecting council tax and payment of housing benefit,
0:03:46 > 0:03:51and that includes looking for people that are making basically fraudulent claims.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53Tell me about any of the big cases.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58Well, the one that springs to mind that's fairly recent is the case of John Watkinson.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03We believe that he's made fraudulent claims over quite a number years
0:04:03 > 0:04:08- and basically the fraud could be up to something like £118,000. - A lot of money.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11- You leave no stone unturned. - We look at everything
0:04:11 > 0:04:16we possibly can. First of all to make sure that we're certain it's a fraudulent claim
0:04:16 > 0:04:19and then make sure we know exactly what we're dealing with.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24I'm intrigued. We know John Watkinson has been
0:04:24 > 0:04:29in receipt of housing and council tax benefits for over a decade. In fact,
0:04:29 > 0:04:33he's been raking in a total of £944 a month.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36But there's something out of the ordinary about
0:04:36 > 0:04:39this claimant's circumstances, namely this.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44A swanky house in one of the most desirable parts of the Wirral,
0:04:44 > 0:04:51quite a disparity with the seemingly destitute man who applied for benefits.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55The picture we had portrayed of John Watkinson and his wife on their claim form,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57was of a couple who had no capital,
0:04:57 > 0:05:03they had no property, they had no savings, so the picture we had was very much of a normal claimant.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10So what exactly brought John Watkinson to the attention of the authorities?
0:05:13 > 0:05:19Wirral Council regularly run checks on their claimants, looking for discrepancies,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23and on a routine investigation into council tax arrears, John Watkinson's name flashed up.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28An undercover fraud investigator tells us more.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31We were looking at people who owed
0:05:31 > 0:05:34more than a certain amount of council tax.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38We cross-referenced those records against ownerships of the properties
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and John Leslie Watkinson showed as the owner of the address.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49So, a routine check revealed John Watkinson owns the house he's living in,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52but on his original benefit application form, he said he was
0:05:52 > 0:05:55paying the rent to a private landlord.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00At this point, it's by no means a definite fraud,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04but it deserved more review, more investigation to find out
0:06:04 > 0:06:10whether there was a real explanation to the information we had or whether or not it looked like a fraud.
0:06:12 > 0:06:17With serious question marks hanging over Watkinson's claim and the mysterious ex-landlord,
0:06:17 > 0:06:22the decision was made to launch a full-scale investigation.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29The next step was to understand who and what they were dealing with.
0:06:29 > 0:06:35So another undercover investigator was dispatched to check out Watkinson's property.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Today, he's taking us back there to show us what he discovered.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46You're certainly sort of in the nicer suburbs now where it gets a bit more...
0:06:46 > 0:06:48a bit more affluent.
0:06:49 > 0:06:55It's very private. You can't really see it from the road at all with the wall and the gates.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00It's not the sort of area you'd expect to find someone living in a rented house on Income Support
0:07:00 > 0:07:02with no money to actually pay the rent themselves.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10Thank you.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Having seen the house, and realising it wasn't typical
0:07:13 > 0:07:17of the type of property lived in by someone claiming benefits,
0:07:17 > 0:07:19suspicions were running high.
0:07:19 > 0:07:25If Watkinson did indeed own it, investigators had to establish when he actually acquired it.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31What we then did was do a more detailed search with the Land Registry.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34What we discovered from those details was in 2000, the property
0:07:34 > 0:07:37had actually been bought by Brooklyn Holdings
0:07:37 > 0:07:40which was all fine. Housing benefit was being paid
0:07:40 > 0:07:43in relation to a tenant for Brooklyn Holdings.
0:07:44 > 0:07:50The second Land Registry check that we did, showed us that in May 2006,
0:07:50 > 0:07:55the property had been transferred from Brooklyn Holdings to John Watkinson for free.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Unbelievable.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04It seems that John Watkinson was simply given a house worth,
0:08:04 > 0:08:10at transfer, an estimated £370,000 by this mysterious landlord.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13It has been known that landlords have sold properties
0:08:13 > 0:08:17and have sold them to their tenants, but it's normally for a monetary value.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20There's normally some gain - this appeared to be a gift
0:08:20 > 0:08:27and Mr Watkinson was continuing to receive housing benefit as if he was a tenant.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32Fraud investigators were baffled. They had no idea why a landlord
0:08:32 > 0:08:35would simply hand over a property for free,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39but what they did know was there was something fishy going on.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48Knowing they could be looking at a complex fraud on a massive scale,
0:08:48 > 0:08:50Wirral Council teamed up with
0:08:50 > 0:08:54the Department for Work and Pensions who have also been paying benefits to John Watkinson.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59It's very likely that if somebody is making a fraudulent claim to us,
0:08:59 > 0:09:03they may well be making a fraudulent claim to the DWP.
0:09:03 > 0:09:09Unbeknown to John Watkinson, the investigators were closing in.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11They knew the key to cracking this case was to uncover
0:09:11 > 0:09:17the truth about the landlord who had so generously gifted the house for free.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22We had to find out exactly who was behind Brooklyn Holdings.
0:09:23 > 0:09:29Investigators got straight on to Companies House, but there was a shock in store.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34They had no record of Brooklyn Holdings in the UK, so the team started looking abroad.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38'We went to Companies House in Gibraltar'
0:09:38 > 0:09:41to get the information on the limited company
0:09:41 > 0:09:46and that showed us that the company had a managing agent who was also based in Gibraltar.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49But unfortunately, they weren't prepared to help us at that time,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52so we hit a brick wall really, so it was, where do we go next?
0:09:54 > 0:09:59Faced with a management company shielding their elusive client,
0:09:59 > 0:10:04the team were stuck, but it didn't take long for these savvy sleuths to sniff out a new lead.
0:10:09 > 0:10:15Checks turned up two more equally posh pads previously tenanted by John Watkinson,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19where he'd been in receipt of benefits including this little stunner.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21The house with the terrace up this drive
0:10:21 > 0:10:24is the first house that Mr Watkinson claimed benefits from.
0:10:24 > 0:10:30It's a big house. I think the estate agent details it was more than four bedrooms.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33And on the benefit application forms for his previous two houses,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35one guess who was quoted as the landlord.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40On the claim forms we've received for housing and council tax benefit,
0:10:40 > 0:10:45in relation to John Watkinson, all appeared to have a landlord as Brooklyn Holdings.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48It was a coincidence that he'd lived in three properties in three very nice areas
0:10:48 > 0:10:54all through the same landlord, and the same organisation owned all three properties.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58So there was obviously a link between Brooklyn Holdings and John Watkinson,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00it's just at this stage we couldn't prove it.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09Coming up, a dawn raid.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11Mr and Mrs Watkinson did seem shocked
0:11:11 > 0:11:14as I think you would be having several police turn up at your door.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18And investigators turn up a few surprises.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27Next, it's farewell fraudsters and hello to the people we call our Saints.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Those who are in genuine need of help, but who are too proud
0:11:30 > 0:11:33or simply don't know how to claim what's due to them
0:11:33 > 0:11:37and their saintly helpers who point them in the right direction.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46In the face of massive unemployment, it's hard enough getting work with skills and experience,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51but imagine trying to find employment if you're a young person and all you want to do
0:11:51 > 0:11:53is get your foot on the first rung of the job ladder.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55There's even a name for it.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59It's called NEET, Not In Employment, Education or Training.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02What a horrible label to have hanging around your neck.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04Getting off benefits is tough.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11With one in six young people now unemployed,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15and with no previous experience to offer potential employers,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17their chances of finding work is slim to say the least.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23But a new scheme may offer some hope.
0:12:24 > 0:12:30In 2010, the Department for Work and Pensions funded a scheme called TAG,
0:12:30 > 0:12:33which stands for Transforming A Generation.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38This looks like we're about to take mug shots of you! Just have a seat around here.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41You're not being interrogated. This ain't Prison Break!
0:12:41 > 0:12:47The idea is to take a bunch of young people with limited prospects of getting work,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52put them on an intensive six-month programme and get them paid work in the health and fitness industry.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55'We're not just here to say work.'
0:12:55 > 0:12:58We're here to motivate them, to inspire them.
0:12:58 > 0:13:03I'm quite young myself and I've gone from jobs that I didn't particularly like
0:13:03 > 0:13:05to a job that I absolutely love in a good role.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08It's just to show them, look, it can be done.
0:13:08 > 0:13:14Don't let age determine, sex determine, background, what you have or haven't done in the past.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Only you determine where you go.
0:13:20 > 0:13:26It's week three of the programme. If the trainees pass the course, they'll receive a qualification
0:13:26 > 0:13:31recognised by the industry and a work placement at a gym. So the pressure is on.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35This is our gym.
0:13:35 > 0:13:40'The trainees are busy learning the practical skills needed to become
0:13:40 > 0:13:45'qualified gym instructors and they're under the firm guidance of tutor, John.'
0:13:45 > 0:13:50You can see John, he's always interacting with the guys.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55John is fantastic with them because he's been in the Army for 23 years,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58he's a mixture of both discipline, boot camp, but he's fun.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01- This is John, this is our man. - John, how are you?
0:14:01 > 0:14:04- These guys, do they get paid for this?- Yes, they do.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07They get paid the minimum wage. They work 25 hours a week.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10That's just over part time, isn't it?
0:14:10 > 0:14:14If they were on Jobseeker's Allowance, which is £100 every two weeks,
0:14:14 > 0:14:15they're now getting double that.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19Surely if someone is on a wage, they have to play by certain rules.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24Yes, they do. The rules are any criminal activity, they're off the course.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29They make sure they have to notify housing benefit that they're now in employment.
0:14:29 > 0:14:30So it has to be recalculated.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34- This is classed as employment? Full time?- It's a job.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37Some of these guys, it's the first time they've not been on the dole.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40They'll stick this on their CV, this will go down as a job for six months.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43At the end of this, do they walk away and say,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47"I've done six months with TAGs," or is there a certificate?
0:14:47 > 0:14:52- A certificate. It's internationally recognised. - It's same as any level two.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55The first qualification some of these guys have had?
0:14:57 > 0:15:02Nathan is a 22-year-old who has had a tough start in life.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06After years on and off the dole, he discovered TAG
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and now he's coming to the end of his work placement
0:15:09 > 0:15:12as a gym instructor. But he's impressed his employers enough
0:15:12 > 0:15:16to bag himself an interview for a full-time job.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23If I could get that opportunity to work with them permanently, that would be amazing.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26Seriously, they're a different group of people.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28They bring out a different side to me, a side that I like.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31Nathan's now had his interview
0:15:31 > 0:15:35and I've heard on the grapevine the news is good.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40- Nathan!- Hey, Dom! How are you? - Congratulations are in order.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44- Thank you very much.- I tell you what, I haven't seen a smile that big
0:15:44 > 0:15:47- since Christmas Day! - Ah, mate, I've over the moon.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51So it's good news - I got the job. Interview went well.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53I was nervous at first, I was a bit nervous.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56- Just chuffed to bits, really.- Tell me about the interview itself.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Did the trainer that TAG gave you help with the whole process?
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Yeah, definitely. They gave me some pinpoints.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05They told me a few body language tips.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07Definitely, what TAG did there, they helped me out a lot.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Nathan's boss Joe has asked the newest member of the team
0:16:13 > 0:16:15to come to the office for a chinwag.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19Welcome. Obviously...
0:16:19 > 0:16:21you joined us on the TAG scheme.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25Really impressed me all the way through.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27And now it's your first day as a member of the team.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30- How are you feeling? - I'm feeling very excited!
0:16:30 > 0:16:35- Let's get you on the register of exercise professionals cos you are now employed.- Yeah, baby!
0:16:35 > 0:16:38- Let's focus...on your training and your development.- Yeah.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46'Francois, the course mentor, knows this kind of success story will give the new recruits a boost.'
0:16:46 > 0:16:48Guys...
0:16:48 > 0:16:50just so you know, it can be done.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53We've got a guy, his name is Nathan Mooney.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58He's been given a full-time job at City Point, a top-end gym that wouldn't have looked at him before.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03He's gone there with the right attitude and this is what I'm aiming for with all of you guys.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Back now to the sinister world of the scrounger.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Wirral's fraud investigation team are hoping to land a very big catch.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24A man they suspect of stealing £118,000 worth of benefits
0:17:24 > 0:17:28whilst living the lifestyle of a millionaire.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37On paper, 69-year-old, John Watkinson, looked like a man
0:17:37 > 0:17:43deserving of the tens of thousands of pounds he'd claimed in benefits over the last decade.
0:17:47 > 0:17:54But despite telling Wirral Council he was renting his house from a private landlord, Brooklyn Holdings,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57it turned out John owned his current house outright.
0:18:00 > 0:18:07What we can see here is that there's an element of greed if this fraud is proved.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13Here we have somebody that owns a property and is claiming rent and claiming council tax benefit.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23The fraud team suspected that John Watkinson created the fake landlord, Brooklyn Holdings,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27to hide the fact he owned all the properties where he'd been claiming
0:18:27 > 0:18:30tens of thousands of pounds in benefits.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35But so far, they just hadn't been able to prove it.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42Their only hope was to get more evidence and they believed the way to do that, was to search his house.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49So investigators put together a plan to carry out a raid.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53In August 2007, it was agreed that a raid would go ahead
0:18:53 > 0:18:59involving ourselves, Merseyside Police, and the Department for Work and Pensions.
0:19:04 > 0:19:11John Watkinson still had no idea he was under investigation, but he was about to get a very rude awakening.
0:19:15 > 0:19:2116 officers arrived at John Watkinson's house at 7am and buzzed the intercom to be let in.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26Mr Watkinson did seem quite shocked as I think you would be,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30having several police and other officers turn up at your door.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33And it didn't take long for investigators to strike gold.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37The documentation that we found led us to believe that
0:19:37 > 0:19:40John Leslie Watkinson was the owner of Brooklyn Holdings.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44If that was the case, then the properties that were owned
0:19:44 > 0:19:48by Brooklyn Holdings were owned by John Watkinson.
0:19:48 > 0:19:54We'd been paying housing benefit and council tax benefit on those properties since 1995.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00So it seems the search was more than justified.
0:20:00 > 0:20:01If we just looked on face value
0:20:01 > 0:20:05at the information we'd got on the application forms and the initial Land Registry,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and we'd asked Mr Watkinson to come in for an interview,
0:20:07 > 0:20:09it could have led him to destroy the evidence.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12So unless we searched, we wouldn't have found that house.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19But proof that John Watkinson was Brooklyn Holdings wasn't the only discovery.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26When we raided John Watkinson's house, we turned up some absolutely astounding information.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30Far from being a housing benefit claimant with no income and no capital,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33what we found was somebody who had an extravagant lifestyle.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37There were properties abroad which were being rented out.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42There were details about weekly rentals and occupancy rates during the summer periods.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46There was bank accounts that were held outside the UK that we weren't aware of.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50And even added to that, which was absolutely astounding
0:20:50 > 0:20:55was that there were boats involved, yachts that were moored in Turkey that were clearly his.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59One of them was actually worth in the region of £39,000 to £40,000.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02This was way beyond anything that people on housing benefit
0:21:02 > 0:21:05should ever really have to be able to claim benefit.
0:21:05 > 0:21:12So here we had what was clearly a greed-motivated application for benefit.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16So let's just get this straight.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19This devious scrounger has been lording it up,
0:21:19 > 0:21:24sailing round the Mediterranean on his yacht, while we, the taxpayers, have been paying for it.
0:21:27 > 0:21:32It was a very complex investigation and even though our officers
0:21:32 > 0:21:36had the documentation, it still wasn't a clincher.
0:21:36 > 0:21:42We still had to have Mr Watkinson about why he would be doing business on behalf of Brooklyn Holdings.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46So John and his wife are brought in for questioning under caution.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49But did John own up, or was he telling the truth all along?
0:21:52 > 0:21:55John Watkinson was quite difficult to interview.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58He simply kept reiterating the fact that we were confused.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00We didn't understand the documentation.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02He didn't have anything to do with Brooklyn Holdings.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05He never dealt with any form of business on their behalf.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Originally he said that Brooklyn Holdings had been good to him.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13He'd been a caretaker to their property and they'd chosen to give him the property.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17John did admit to owning the property from May 2006
0:22:17 > 0:22:24and that he was wrong not to tell us and continue to receive payments of rent to his bank account.
0:22:24 > 0:22:30He did offer to pay that back in full and that was the only thing that he admitted to on that day.
0:22:31 > 0:22:37But this part-confession didn't take the wind out of the fraud investigators' sails.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42Determined to prove this scam went a lot further back than 2006,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45they released John and his wife on bail for six months
0:22:45 > 0:22:49and continued to dig deeper into the ownership of Brooklyn Holdings Limited.
0:22:53 > 0:22:58There were so many things pointing to the fact that John Watkinson really was Brooklyn Holdings.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00We just had to go back further.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07Finally the team got the breakthrough they desperately needed.
0:23:07 > 0:23:14Investigators obtain a declaration of trust, a piece of legal paperwork from John's solicitor
0:23:14 > 0:23:20proving that John Watkinson and Brooklyn Holdings are one and the same.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28And it proved that this ruthless scrounger
0:23:28 > 0:23:31had been stealing benefits as far back as 1995.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37I finally realised that we'd turned the corner and that a lot
0:23:37 > 0:23:41of the hard work that had gone on in previous months was all worthwhile.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Fraud investigators now had all the evidence they needed
0:23:49 > 0:23:53to take scrounger John Watkinson to court.
0:23:53 > 0:24:00He's accused of cheating the local council out of over £55,000 in housing benefits and council tax.
0:24:00 > 0:24:06And accused of stealing nearly £63,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions
0:24:06 > 0:24:09for income support and pension credits.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13In total, John Watkinson pilfered over £118,000
0:24:13 > 0:24:17from the pockets of the British taxpayer.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23Faced with overwhelming evidence,
0:24:23 > 0:24:27John Watkinson pleads guilty to all 18 charges.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31As for Watkinson's wife, although she was arrested and charged,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35the court ordered that the two charges against her be left on file.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41I'm pleased to see that we've managed to take this action and bring it to
0:24:41 > 0:24:48a conclusion to see that fraud is stopped, especially fraud on this massive scale.
0:24:54 > 0:24:59It's July 2010 and it's judgement day for scrounger, Watkinson.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04As he enters court for sentencing, our cameras were ready and waiting.
0:25:06 > 0:25:13Investigators from Wirral Council and the DWP have every faith that justice will be done.
0:25:13 > 0:25:19I've investigated this case now for nearly three years and sometimes I found it quite frustrating.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23I've done the best I can and I've got the case here to court today
0:25:23 > 0:25:27and now it's down to the judge to issue the correct sentence that he feels is fitting.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29After a few hours, it's all over.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40And the punishment, two years behind bars, to begin with immediate effect.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46The prosecution are also seeking to seize his luxury assets
0:25:46 > 0:25:51to compensate for the £118,000 he's stolen in benefits.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And he'll be forced to live with a criminal record.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02We're very pleased with the outcome.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08Any custodial sentence for a fraud of this nature is a welcome one.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13This says that Wirral doesn't tolerate fraud.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19What we say to everyone is, "We want you to claim your right amount of housing benefit.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24"We'll work to get that to you correctly and on time,
0:26:24 > 0:26:29"but we will not tolerate fraud and fraud of this scale is just wholly abhorrent."
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Two years, eh? What a result.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39It appears John Watkinson's seafaring days have finally come to an end.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43It's probably about now that cabin fever is setting in.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46You see, the thing is, he's no stranger to compact living,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50but there's a big difference between doing it on a yacht and doing it in a prison cell.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Go on captain, open it up!
0:27:20 > 0:27:23Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk