Melia/Hunter Saints and Scroungers

Saints And Scroungers puts the spotlight on benefit thieves

who steal millions of pounds every year from the British taxpayer.

We also search out the saints who help put unclaimed cash into the hands of those who deserve it.

Saints And Scroungers is all about busting benefit thieves

who steal millions every year

and the crack teams of investigators determined to scupper their devious scams.

We also shine a light on those who genuinely need the money and the people who help them get it.

They are our saints.

The saints get help and the fraudsters get their comeuppance.

Coming up on today's show -

the claimant with one of the highest child tax credit incomes in the UK.

At this point, she was actually receiving in excess of £32,000.

But is she really a mother of 14?

It appeared that she had just invented these children in order to claim tax credits.

We meet a man who fought off a major illness, but is now battling to stay in his home.

To carry on living in my own home means everything.

Will he get the cash lifeline he needs to help secure his future?

We couldn't afford to get any adaptions done, so I was worried he might have to go in a care home.

If you're down on your luck and you're forced to survive on government hand-outs,

you've got to thank your fellow citizens for paying their taxes

because that is exactly what benefits are - other people's taxes.

But it's there for those people who need it, not for those people who want to milk it.

Tipton, West Midlands,

home to 30-year-old Kerry Melia, her husband and their family.

With young children to look after, it's difficult for Kerry to get out to work

and with her husband also unemployed,

Kerry claims tax credits to supplement her family's income.

Tax credits was introduced in April 2003

and was designed to be a flexible credit system

to allow people to claim Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

Child Tax Credit is generally paid to people on low incomes who have a child resident with them.

£27 billion is paid out every year in tax credits, mainly to families with children.

It's money intended to benefit the most needy families in our society

and this huge sum is fiercely guarded by officers at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs

who have robust systems in place to try to ensure the wrong people can't get their hands on the cash.

We regularly do a search of the top 5% of tax credit claims in payment.

This might be the highest amount or we may use other search criteria to pick out

which we subject to greater scrutiny

and that top tier that we select is then subject to data cross-matching

with information held by other government departments, like the Department for Work and Pensions.

In the course of one of these routine checks, Kerry Melia's name has popped up.

The file was handed to an HMRC case manager who, due to the sensitive nature of her work,

needs to remain anonymous.

In the Melia case, the claim was quite a high claim.

Therefore, it immediately triggered some of the systems that we have in place.

Kerry Melia was in receipt of more than £30,000 a year

in Child Tax Credit. With a sum that large,

the Revenue's crack team of undercover investigators are obliged to do a few extra checks.

It was time for a thorough review of Kerry Melia's claims.

The first claim that Kerry Melia submitted

was on the 16th of August, 2005.

On this she claimed for four children and one baby.

The first claim, there was no questions asked.

The correct documents were provided and the award was made to them.

Nothing suspicious so far. Four children and one baby - that takes the total to five.

That year, Kerry received just over £6,000 in Child Tax Credits which she was entitled to.

But less than a year later,

Kerry got back in touch with the Tax Credit Department.

On the 31st of January, 2006, Kerry Melia contacted the HMRC Helpline

to advise them that she had now taken on responsibility for her sister-in-law's three children

and she'd be fostering them,

so was incurring expenses and would like to claim tax credits for them.

OK, Kerry's original five children plus three foster children makes eight. That claim was also approved.

And by later the same year,

Kerry had given birth to another baby of her own.

Cue another call to the HMRC Helpline.

On the 20th of November, 2006,

Kerry rang up to notify that she'd had a baby boy

and therefore wanted to add him to her claim and increase the payment.

Are you keeping up? Now she's claiming for nine children.

Once again, Kerry's payments increased.

By now, she was receiving almost £15,500 a year in Child Tax Credits.

No questions were asked,

but it was her subsequent claims for even more children

that started to arouse suspicion.

By 2009, Kerry was claiming for five genuine children

and a further nine children which she said she was fostering.

At this point, she was actually receiving in excess of £32,000.

14 children and £32,000-worth of tax credits in one year?

That's one heck of a total.

No wonder alarm bells had started to sound at HMRC.

The sophisticated internal systems started to red-flag Kerry's case,

getting the investigators rather hot under the collar.

Kerry Melia's claim was subject to greater scrutiny because of the sheer number of children.

This included her children and children which she was fostering on behalf of her sister-in-law

and other children which had allegedly been put to her to foster from the local authority.

The only way to move this investigation forward

was to find out whether all these children really were living with Kerry Melia.

She made over 300 calls to the tax credit helpline,

so it was necessary for us to obtain the call recordings and transcribe them.

We had to listen to them to see what declarations she had made to us.

Initially, investigators found little evidence

that Kerry was trying to cheat the system.

When Kerry made the calls to the tax credit helpline, she did come across as very convincing.

She gave the air of somebody who was wanting to do her best by these foster children.

But the cracks soon started to show.

As the calls progressed, she did on a number of occasions

actually slip up with dates of births and getting names a bit confused.

Gotcha!

The anti-fraud team now smelled a rat,

so they cross-checked the information from the call logs

with information held at other government departments.

Kerry's first claim for four children in 2005 was cross-checked

with Child Benefit records from the Department for Work and Pensions.

All four children were receiving Child Benefit,

so the investigator knew those initial claims were genuine.

But what about the claims she had made in 2006 about fostering her niece and nephews?

We needed to verify whether the niece and two nephews had been placed with Kerry,

therefore, we contacted social services.

They confirmed that these three children hadn't been placed with Kerry for fostering,

though they were aware of them.

Kerry hadn't officially been fostering her niece and nephews,

so had no right to claim Child Tax Credit for them.

She had been overpaid more than £5,500 of tax credit.

Her story was starting to seriously unravel.

But what about the other foster children for whom she made claims?

We contacted the General Register Office to establish

whether the nine other children did actually exist.

The General Register Office holds a central copy

of all registrations for births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales.

If they don't hold a person's birth certificate, they don't exist.

When the investigators looked closely at the birth records,

more of Kerry's foster children simply dropped off the list.

For example, she claimed that Martin Crompton had been born on the 15th of May, 2004,

and he was a child that didn't exist.

This was the killer piece of evidence the investigators had been waiting for.

The other eight children for whom Kerry Melia had claimed tax credits

were subject to the same scrutiny with the General Registry Office

and like Martin Crompton, they couldn't trace any records

for children born on the dates claimed by Kerry Melia.

This was the conclusive proof

that none of Kerry Melia's supposed foster children officially existed.

It appeared to us that she had just invented these children in order to claim tax credits.

Claiming tax credits for 14 children when you only have five? That's brazen.

Investigators were now convinced that Kerry Melia's Child Tax Credit claim didn't stack up.

They suspected that she had been overpaid almost £20,000 in tax credits

she simply wasn't entitled to.

But they wanted further proof before they could throw the book at her.

It was time to pay the Melia family a visit.

Coming up later, we discover more

about the many residents of Kerry's three-bedroom semi.

We came across various animals and reptiles,

a snake.

And her tissue of lies unravels

when she inadvertently leads investigators

to the key evidence against her.

She said, "Please don't look in the cupboards in the kitchen, third drawer down."

For now, it's farewell to the fraudsters and hello to the people we call our saints,

those who are in need of help, but are too proud or don't know how to claim what is rightfully theirs

and the people who point them in the right direction.

Imagine working all your life, paying all your taxes

and really looking forward to your retirement,

but then instead of being able to enjoy that well-earned freedom,

you become a prisoner in your own home.

71-year-old Ken Hunter from Walton-on-Thames can't get out and about much any more.

He needs help just to get out of bed and is unable to cope

with even the most simple of household tasks.

But it wasn't always like that.

He enjoyed a happy marriage with his wife Joyce and worked for 25 years as a bookbinder

before starting a window-cleaning business with his brother-in-law.

Ken worked another ten years until poor health forced him to stop.

I had internal abscesses and part of my bowel had turned gangrenous.

And when I left hospital, I realised I would never be fit again to do window cleaning,

so it effectively... That's when my work life ended.

Ken was signed off as unfit to work.

He was entitled to Disability Living Allowance and later, a state pension.

To help support her husband and two adopted children, Danielle and Mark,

Ken's wife Joyce took work at a local factory.

But then Ken came up with an idea that he hoped would make their lives a bit easier.

When you're there in bed and you see your wife leaving the house at 6.30 in the morning,

and she's got rheumatoid arthritis, you think, "This can't be right."

So that's when I came up with the idea of applying for equity release, which we got.

Equity release is a method of obtaining some of the capital value of your property as cash.

You get a lump sum to live off which is usually repaid by the sale of your property when you die.

Having an extra small income meant that Joyce could retire,

but it wasn't long after Joyce's retirement that things took a dramatic turn for the Hunter family

when she became seriously ill.

She was found to have ovarian cancer.

And also she had a weakened heart.

Anyway, they was going to do her hysterectomy,

but when they got her on the table, her heart was fluttering and they said, "We can't do it."

So she was just basically sent home.

She did have chemo and they gave her a blood transfusion every now and again which perked her up no end.

We'd come back from one of those and she got some fish and chips on the way home.

She said, "I fancy some fish and chips." Anyway, we went upstairs

and all of a sudden, Danielle, my daughter, was going nuts. I thought, "What's going on here?"

She'd died, but because she had her face away from me, I didn't realise.

One minute she's chatting away with an appetite, the next, she's dead.

She's there with her fish and chips, then she's gone.

Ken had always been close to his daughter Danielle,

but now she had to try and fill the gap left by her mother.

Dad took it really, really hard when Mum passed because he was heavily reliant upon her.

She did pretty much everything.

He helped out here and there, but she did most things.

Just a short time after the death of his wife,

Ken Hunter had to suddenly have his leg amputated at the hip as a result of vascular disease.

Now he's confined to a bed or a wheelchair and unable to access the first floor of his house

where his bedroom and bathroom are located.

I quickly came to realise that I was, in essence, a prisoner in my own home.

All I could do was get the wheelchair and go from the bed to the kitchen. That was it.

Ken's daughter Danielle has pulled out all the stops to get her father all the extra benefits she can.

I needed help and Danielle was there.

You know, she was on the phone to people, she knew what organisations to contact.

And, you know, all the rest of it.

Although Ken is currently being cared for day to day in his home, he needs to look to the future.

His house needs major adaptations if he is to be able to stay there - work that won't come cheap.

We couldn't afford to get any adaptions done, so I was worried he might have to go in a care home.

Ken has really started to worry about what the future holds for him.

In my head, I thought I'm going to end up in a care home, which was the last thing I wanted.

To carry on living in my own home means everything

because it's not a house, it's a home.

All my memories are here, which are with me all the time, you know.

Fortunately, a saint has come to Ken's rescue in the nick of time

in the form of occupational therapist, Shelly.

She has drawn up a list of work to be carried out in Ken's home to make it possible for him to stay there.

We looked at door widenings for the wheelchair.

We put a through-floor lift in

from the living room up into one of the bedrooms

and for Ken's bed to be moved up into the bedroom,

door widenings upstairs and a wet-floor shower area

and rails around the toilet to make transfers easier.

There's just one possible drawback to Shelly's plan for Ken's house.

All the work will cost a massive £26,000 -

money Ken doesn't have.

But Shelly has referred Ken's case to Helen Emin at Elmbridge Council Home Improvement Department

in the hope that they might be able to throw him a lifeline.

I've come to meet her and to find out more about what she can do for Ken.

We are a home improvement agency.

We're there to assist vulnerable people

-to continue to live independently.

-What do you class as "vulnerable"?

-You're not just saying "disabled", are you?

-No.

Disabled, elderly, people on a low income.

'The council's Home Improvement Department is there to help people in situations like Ken's.

'It's not just a great service for vulnerable people,

'but it helps to save taxpayers' money in the long run.'

For a severely disabled wheelchair user,

if they couldn't remain in their own home and have to go into residential care,

you'd be looking at a cost of about £700, £800 a week for residential care.

By assisting them and putting in, for example, a stairlift to enable them to stay in the property

or ramp access, that's avoiding that cost.

Helen also really wants Ken to be able to stay in his home

and she's going to try and help him get some funding to cover the cost of the work that's needed.

It's called a Disabled Facilities Grant and it's paid out by local councils

to help make changes to a disabled person's home, but the conditions for approval are quite stringent.

-Was Ken entitled?

-As Ken was in receipt of a means-tested benefit,

that meant he was eligible for a grant, but also as he is registered disabled,

it automatically meant that he would be available to have adaptations carried out.

-He's double-qualified, isn't he?

-He is, yes.

-Both boxes ticked.

-Absolutely.

When I heard that Dad was entitled to the full grant, I couldn't believe it.

You're never really sure until you get the OK and I was so excited. I was really pleased for him.

So with the grant and works approved by the council, the builders could get started at Ken's house.

They're constructing a wheelchair-accessible ramp

to Ken's front door, so he'll finally be able to get outside on his own

and they'll also give him access to the upstairs of his house by installing a through-floor lift

to take him to his bedroom. They've already finished Ken's wheelchair-accessible wetroom.

Now that everything is coming together, he's getting excited

about soon being able to make use of all the fantastic adaptations.

I'm feeling very pleased that I'll be able to get out on the ramp

because for a year, I haven't been able to get out. I'm really looking forward to that.

I'm looking forward to going on the lift and going up for a shower.

I haven't seen my upstairs for a year.

I can't remember what it looks like!

The total cost of the work at Ken's house came to £26,000.

Although it didn't cost him a penny, if Ken decided to sell his house,

he would be liable to repay a portion of the cost,

up to a maximum of £10,000 over ten years.

But it's safe to say that the first place Ken plans to go is definitely upstairs.

I think the lift that they've put in for me is an absolute boon.

It makes it easier to go up and down, take a shower when I want to. Absolutely wonderful.

Ken's also loving being able to get out and about once again

and no longer feeling like a prisoner in his own home.

The last time you brought me down here wasn't that long after Mum died.

-I haven't been down here for about 18 months.

-It's nice to be out.

-Yeah, and to get a bit of fresh air.

-So is this going to be the start of things to come, then?

-Yeah.

All the things they've done for me has totally given me my independence back, you know?

I've gone from being able to do virtually nothing to practically anything I want.

You know... I can go out in a car if I want to.

Whereas I couldn't before because I'm terrified of going out the door.

You know, it's just transformed my life.

It might have cost over £25,000 of taxpayers' money to adapt Ken's house,

but when you look at the alternative of long-term care, that's a small price to pay.

But giving him back his independence and his lifestyle, that's priceless.

Back now to the world of the scrounger and the case against Kerry Melia is building up pace.

Investigators have become aware that her huge claim for Child Tax Credits

is partly based on nine foster children

she appears to have invented.

It was time to go and see if the Melia family were at home.

From the outside, Kerry's house certainly didn't look like a home for a very large family.

So you're telling me they got 14 kids and two adults into a three-bed semi-detached house like this?

Right-o. What happened when the little one said, "Roll over"?

On the 28th of July, 2010, we went to Kerry's house to arrest her,

but found that she was on holiday in Rhyl.

Only one of Kerry's children and her brother-in-law

were at the family home that day.

The rest of the Melia clan were on a caravan holiday in Wales.

But word soon got through to Kerry that fraud investigators were in her house.

A couple of hours later, Kerry contacted me.

I explained that we wanted to arrest her

and that she would be under arrest for tax credit fraud

and we would search her house for evidence of those offences

and to see whether she did have 14 children living there.

On entering the house, it didn't look fit as a home for one child,

let alone 14.

When we got into the house,

it appeared as if the family had only recently moved in there.

There was clothing strewn all over the place, boxes,

bin bags...

It was very difficult to distinguish the beds underneath all the clothing.

And while only one of Kerry's children was in evidence,

investigators did find a whole host of other residents.

Then we came across various animals and reptiles.

A snake,

iguana, cockatiels

and in the fridge, there were dead mice.

There was also, on the kitchen floor, an aquarium

full of tropical fish.

Investigators had the run of Kerry's house and were on the hunt

for evidence of her suspect Child Tax Credit claims, but didn't have to look for long.

With the severity of the situation now dawning on Kerry,

she rang the investigator back

and inadvertently landed herself right in it.

She said, "Please don't look in the cupboards in the kitchen, third drawer down."

SHE LAUGHS

Talk about red rag to a bull! One guess what the investigators did next!

Obviously, we went straight to the drawer

and in this drawer, we found lots of documents relating to the children -

their names, their dates of birth,

something I would consider to be a cheat sheet

in case she got questioned about them.

Investigators now had the proof they needed

that Kerry had fabricated the existence of nine foster children,

so that she could claim extra benefits.

By the end of the day, she knew her number was up.

Later that evening, I received a text from Kerry

where she said, "I know I've done wrong,

"I know that my claims are fraudulent and I'm sorry."

But it was too little, too late.

When she returned from her caravan holiday in Wales,

Kerry Melia was asked to attend an interview under caution at the police station.

Kerry, under cautioned interview,

admitted that the nine children were fictitious that we had paid tax credits for.

She also admitted that she had made attempts

to claim for a further six more.

Kerry said that she didn't realise what she was doing was fraudulent

and she knew other people that were doing the same

and they had never been caught.

What Kerry Melia was doing was fraudulent.

She was charged with ten counts of obtaining tax credits by deception.

On the 29th of July, 2011, she appeared in court

where she pleaded guilty.

Over a five-year period,

Kerry Melia claimed over

£65,000-worth of Child Tax Credits

for foster children that didn't exist.

She was sentenced to eight months of imprisonment.

Tax credits is designed to help those most needy in society

and people like Kerry Melia have effectively stolen money

which was destined for those people in need.

Kerry set out deliberately to claim for children that didn't exist

and she was punished as she should have been for this offence.

The government won't tolerate false claims like Kerry Melia has made.

Kerry Melia thought she could invent children left, right and centre

and claim tax credits she wasn't entitled to,

but those over-inflated claims set alarm bells ringing at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs

and eventually, her greed was her downfall.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2012