Virokaitis/Bell Saints and Scroungers

This programme tracks down thieves, it exposes fraudsters and brings help to those who deserve it.

This is the front line in the battle against benefit fraud. This is Saints & Scroungers.

Saints & Scroungers is all about busting benefit thieves who steal millions every year

and the crack team of investigators determined to scupper their scams.

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

They are our saints.

The saints get help and the fraudsters get their comeuppance.

Coming up on today's show:

how an unscrupulous gang used women and children to steal over £3 million in false benefit claims.

Virokaitis had £8,000 in cash on him and Mantis Puras had six.

And a teenager who had to face the worst challenge of her young life.

When I had my chemo I was really nervous and scared and thought it was going to be awful.

and make me feel quite rough.

Really strong, powerful, horrible stuff, it makes you very, very sick.

Kids. They are our future, but they also cost you a fortune,

which is why in this country you get Child Benefit to help pay for the little darlings,

but if your household income is less than 40 grand a year, you can also get Child Tax Credits.

For some families, that's a godsend.

That's why it's particularly galling when someone deliberately sets out to take advantage of our generosity

to rip off the system.

Meet Ricardas Virokaitis, his wife Jelena and his mate, Mantis Puras.

They came to the UK from Lithuania when their country joined the European Union

and set up home in Eltham, south-east London.

I'd like to tell you that Ricardas got himself a job and supported his family and tried hard to make a go

of his new life in this country, but sadly that isn't the case.

A tip off to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs from the Lithuanian authorities placed Ricardas

and his gang under suspicion of operating a multi-million-pound benefit scam.

The Lithuanian authorities passed on information that suggested a Lithuanian woman with two children

had been persuaded to come over to England. Once here, Virokaitis got her to hand over her ID papers

so they could be used in an ongoing Child Tax Credit benefit fraud.

Fraud investigator Duncan McCallum picked up the trail.

She told them that the documents she had given to some men who had taken her to the UK

with a view to claiming benefits in the UK and that the documents were never returned to her.

HM Revenue and Customs very quickly discovered that there were a number of claimants, all female,

using their Lithuanian ID documents to make suspected fraudulent claims

for Child Tax Credits in the UK.

Virokaitis, his wife Jelena and co-conspirator Mantis Puras

were alleged to be manipulating these women with children

to create a network of false claims,

helping them to establish work and addresses to validate their presence in the UK.

The main undercover investigator working with Duncan was keen to pursue all leads they'd been given.

Due to the nature of her work, she needs to remain anonymous.

We were given the nine names of Lithuanian ladies and children.

We linked them to certain addresses in south-east London.

Those addresses had other claimants there, other female claimants, with numerous children.

There were things that just didn't add up. You would never find, let's say,

20 ladies living at a particular address, two up, two down premises. It wasn't possible.

In a very short period of time, we found 58.

Then it mushroomed to in excess of 100.

We knew at that stage that we were looking at a growing fraud.

The bare-faced cheek of it. This is money for parents to help bring up their children.

Money that you and me have paid for in our taxes.

The more the investigators started to dig, the more the claims from these Lithuanian women

and their kids seemed bogus.

They began to see patterns

whereby they were all employed by the same cleaning company,

the same demolition company.

The addresses that were being used

for the demolition company on one claimant

was the residential address of another female claimant.

The claims were all for women making both working and child tax claims for three children.

The investigators followed the Child Tax Credit payments,

which at their peak were being paid to over 100 women.

The trail led to accounts in Post Offices and banks.

It became apparent that the bank accounts were set up

purely to facilitate this fraud.

If you look at my bank account, my life is on there.

On these bank statements, there was nothing on there other than Revenue and Customs paying money in

and money being withdrawn out from PTM machines.

Hang on a minute. How could Virokaitis and his gang get away with this scam?

'I needed to find out, so I went to meet Clare Merrills

'for some much-needed clarification.'

Can people literally just come into this country

-from anywhere within the EU and start claiming credits and benefits from day one?

-It depends

on their particular circumstances. If they're coming in to this country, they've got a job,

this is going to be their home from now on, and they can prove that,

that they're making their contribution to our economy, then, yes, they would be entitled.

But if they're not coming in with a job and they're just popping in to visit, they're not entitled.

I could go live somewhere in the EU and do the same thing.

Yes, you could. If you went to live in France then you could do that and you'd be entitled.

If you were resident there, that was your home

and you were only coming home to visit here every now and again, you'd be entitled to their benefits.

Fair enough. So were these women actually living in the UK at all?

We knew very, very early on that they were not residents here.

They had their flights paid for, they'd had their accommodation paid for.

They'd bring them here for a week, maximum, to open the bank accounts,

and then to front the interviews.

'There was something still nagging at me. Why had Virokaitis targeted these women?'

He brought in women with children. Why? Why just bring in that?

He was preferring to bring in women with children as they could prove they had children.

-That can increase your claim.

-So this was very well thought out.

-And it's big.

-It's big. This is serious organised criminality.

It's not just one person trying to increase their individual claim.

This is organised criminality on a huge scale.

This was an organised racket. The gang picked on the poorest women with the most children

and paid them what was a small fortune in Lithuania,

but only a fraction of what they were raking in.

But surely these women wouldn't be familiar enough

with our benefits system

to help Virokaitis maintain such a complicated scam.

In order for the fraud to be fronted extremely well,

the women had to have someone who knew the system and who was fluent in English.

Jelena Virokaitien was one of these individuals

who would accompany the women.

She acted as an interpreter and a confidante in some respects.

She was there to assist them in their needs.

So while Virokaitis is managing the money through banks and Post Offices, his wife is going along

and vouching for the women to make sure they get their benefits. Who foots the bill? The taxpayer.

Ah, this complex fraud is beginning to become clear,

but if the women were here for such a short period of time, how could the deception carry on?

One of her key roles was that after the women had long gone,

these applications had to be renewed. Virokaitien's role was

to pretend that she was those women.

So using what they knew of the Lithuanian women from their time here and the info from their papers,

which they had kept, Virokaitis's wife Jelena was able to take on

these identities and continue the fraud.

So how much money did these devious criminals have access to?

They would take home between £300 and £600 every fortnight quite easily. That was being withdrawn,

per person, per claimant.

And if you multiply that by over 100 false claimants at the peak of this scam,

it quickly turns into a staggering amount of money.

Over £3 million. Unbelievable.

For the fraud investigators, the pieces were gradually coming together in this complex crime

but the team were under extra pressure to prove it in double quick time.

Because Revenue and Customs were paying out thousands of pounds every week, we were given

a very, very short timeframe in which to bring this job home.

That was our biggest challenge.

It's a tough case to crack and they soon discovered what a full-time job the scam was

for Virokaitis and his gang.

He would move through every ATM

until he was satisfied that he'd withdrawn all the money.

Next, it's farewell to the scroungers and hello to the saints,

innocent men and women all over the UK in dire need of government help.

And the people who show them the way to claim what they deserve.

When you're young, it's easy to think you're invincible.

What if the worst happened and you were faced with critical illness?

Who could you turn to to make like easier?

16-year-old Charlotte was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour.

Although she made it through the surgery needed to remove it, her battle was far from over.

I had to start a course of radiotherapy which lasted six weeks.

So it was really intense.

To add to their burden, the family had to travel three hours a day

to and from the hospital, which took its toll,

and they were desperate to find a way to stay nearby.

Hotels and B&Bs were very expensive and it seemed they had nowhere to turn,

until their very own saint, Karen Ruck, from cancer charity CLIC Sargent, walked

into their lives.

I'm CLIC Sargent Social Work Team Leader at the children's hospital in Oxford,

and we have a team of social workers. We offer support to families when a child has cancer.

We offer emotional, practical and financial support.

Karen was able to offer Charlotte and her family the very thing they never thought possible -

a home from home.

CLIC Sargent have a number of home from homes near principal treatment centres.

We have one here in Oxford.

So to get away from the hospital and come down to CLIC Court,

sit in a lounge, make a cup of tea, make dinner, just gives a sense of some normality to families, really.

And this normality came as an astonishing gift.

CLIC Court's free to use, so for families who don't live near the treatment centre,

when they come for radiotherapy which can take six weeks, they can stay here and not have to travel.

There's no charge to them to use it.

It was a complete lifesaver to be offered CLIC Court.

It meant that we drove up on a Monday morning, stayed until Friday afternoon.

The whole house just feels so homely and it's just a lifesaver.

-We wouldn't have managed without it.

-Having the home from home was amazing.

It sort of made you forget for a while that you were poorly.

It was just like a house and you could do what you want and chat to others. Yeah, it was good.

But Charlotte's treatment was hard going.

Radiotherapy was very tough. The first week was very difficult.

Quite traumatic. Charlotte literally was bolted, near enough, face down into a mask.

For an hour. And she wasn't allowed to move,

she couldn't talk, and while the radiotherapy is being administered you can't stay in the room

so the only way I could see her was on a television screen.

And it was awful. I know she was just laying there crying.

As a mum, that's just awful that you can't be with your child when they're so upset.

When I had my radiotherapy treatment it made me feel really sick.

I also lost my hair, which was quite a shock, actually.

But Charlotte managed to turn even this into a positive.

Charlotte's amazing. She's incredibly stoical.

When her hair was coming out in big clumps,

she put it out for the birds so they could make a warm nest.

Karen was on hand to help the family in any way she could.

That included guiding them through applying for any benefits they may now be entitled to

to help with Charlotte's difficulty walking and her double vision since the operation.

It hadn't even occurred to us that we would be entitled to any sort of benefits,

but Karen assured us that we would now be entitled to it. Charlotte does have...

disabilities now to a degree, especially mobility disabilities.

So Karen helped us, which is great. I wouldn't know where to start.

Charlotte was awarded a Disability Living Allowance which has proved

a real financial boost at the family's time of need.

Although we have CLIC Court to go to, we still have lots of journeys back and forwards to Oxford

and our general hospital if Charlotte has blood transfusions.

So a lot of money has gone on petrol and just things like heating. Charlotte really feels the cold.

Things like that. It's just gone to help generally in a big pot of expenses we didn't have before.

Getting through the radiotherapy was still only half the battle.

Charlotte then had to pluck up her courage once again,

and her remaining strength to face a year of punishing chemotherapy.

When I had my chemo, I was really nervous and really scared

and thought it would be awful and make me feel quite rough.

Really strong, powerful, horrible stuff. It makes you very sick and very tired. Very draining.

And once again the family's saint was on hand to ease this next challenge.

Chemotherapy meant further stays in hospital and again they were able to use CLIC Court.

The family could come and stay while Charlotte was having her treatment.

Finally, after two years of living through what no teenager should have to suffer,

Charlotte completed her chemotherapy course.

The doctors when they gave me my last dose of chemo were over the moon that I'd done the course

of chemo and radiotherapy and got through it.

-And the best news of all?

-At this moment in time, I am in remission

as I had my last MRI a few weeks ago and everything was clear. There was no cancer in my body at all.

And the doctors and nurses were all really pleased.

To be told that your child has suddenly got their life back again

and, you know, at certain stages it was really in the balance.

So to say it's the best news in the world is just a complete understatement, really.

I couldn't be prouder of Charlotte.

Everything she's been through...

not once has she ever said, "Why me?" Never.

And, em...yeah. So I'm as proud as anybody could possibly be.

I'm blessed. A fantastic daughter.

She's brilliant.

Although Charlotte still has to have some physio and an operation to help her double vision,

she is looking forward to a bright future and she's picked up

the one thing she thought she'd never do again.

Being back out on the horse is lovely. Feels like I'm getting part of my old life back.

Back in the world of the scroungers,

the criminal gang led by Ricardas Virokaitis

were being hotly pursued by HM Revenue and Customs.

They had uncovered a sickening trail of fraud, with origins in Europe,

that was costing the British taxpayer millions of pounds.

They targeted poor families in Lithuania and brought women to the UK for the sole purpose

of registering for National Insurance numbers, opening bank accounts and setting up documents

to show what was false employment.

The women were then taken back to Lithuania where they were paid an amount of money

for their children's identity documents. Those were then used

to fraudulently claim Child Tax Credits.

It was time for HM Revenue and Customs to step up the investigation and put the gang under surveillance.

They wanted to secure the incriminating footage they needed to put a stop to this.

They homed in on bank ATMs and Post Offices in the Woolwich area in south-east London

where Virokaitis, his wife Jelena and the third member of the gang, Mantis Puras, operated.

It wasn't long before their efforts were rewarded at one Post Office.

We realised that there was a man coming in on a regular basis.

His behaviour was very peculiar.

Before approaching the desk, he would make reference to a mobile phone

and then he would remove a number of bank cards.

You'd see him inserting those bank cards into the chip and pin

at the counter.

Sounds to me like he was checking those PIN numbers.

With so much money to steal, he'd want to make sure he'd got it right.

The surveillance footage continued to come up trumps.

After researching the CCTV, it led us to a vehicle.

A car that helpfully led the team to a house which was then watched

in order to monitor just what this criminal got up to.

Every two weeks, he would jump in his car, go to a Post Office,

on occasions it would be up to £600 for each card he'd insert

and on one occasion on one day

he would visit up to seven Post Offices.

So hundreds of pounds being withdrawn from multiple Post Offices is thousands of pounds.

Clearly, this gang had got to be stopped and quickly.

But first things first. The team needed to find out just who this second gang member was.

We identified him as Mantis Puras,

who had a pretty key role in the fraud.

He was instrumental in recruiting some of these women

and he accompanied a number of them to the DWP offices.

It wasn't just Post Offices under surveillance. Bank ATMs were also under close scrutiny.

There were particular days every two to three weeks

when Virokaitis would make the withdrawal from the bank.

And at particular times

he would approach a particular bank and then move through every ATM

until he was satisfied that he'd withdrawn all the money.

Little did this benefit thief know that the fraud team were hot on his trail.

Intelligence indicated that Virokaitis was due to fly out to Lithuania.

We suspected he would be carrying a considerable amount of cash.

We mounted surveillance on him at the airport where he associated with Mantis Puras.

It was time to close these criminals down.

Both Mantis Puras and Ricardas Virokaitis were arrested and searched.

Virokaitis had £8,000 in cash on him and Mantis Puras had six.

Caught red-handed.

At the time of Virokaitis's arrest, we believed there was evidence in this safe house behind me.

Very quickly, officers were here

and we searched and found, in an under-the-floorboard concealment,

a number of bank cards and other paraphernalia that were used to perpetrate this fraud.

But this wasn't the only property this gang had been using.

In fact, it was just one of 23 houses they had used for carrying out their devious fraud,

from housing fake companies to addresses for correspondence,

all to create a maze of misinformation to try and hide the shocking scale of the fraud -

over £3 million.

What would the leader of this organised crime racket have to say for himself?

From the moment he was arrested,

Virokaitis admitted his guilt. His frame of mind clearly showed

that he believed that sooner or later he would be found out

and he was prepared to take the consequences.

-What about his accomplice, Mantis Puras?

-He denied any knowledge of the fraud.

He denied any involvement in it.

He stated he hadn't visited Post Offices,

he had nothing to do with any claimants

and the money he had on his person

that he was travelling out with was purely for dental work.

He said he had dental treatment arranged in Lithuania. All of this was not true.

For someone who was looking at a custodial sentence,

he appeared not to have a care in the world, often laughing and joking.

I suspect he's not laughing now.

And what about the third member of the gang, Virokaitis's wife Jelena? What did she have to say?

She was initially defiant. She refused to answer questions in interview.

A solicitor made a statement on her behalf stating that she was not involved in any criminality.

But the investigators knew better.

As time went on, it became clear to her

that there was a lot of evidence.

Both Puras and Virokaitien pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

Although this was a great achievement for the investigating team, it was bittersweet.

I have to say it is now just not feasible to recover all of the money that was defrauded,

but as we identify assets, as we identify cash that is clearly the proceeds of this fraud,

those assets will be confiscated and they will be seized.

At the time of his arrest, Ricardas Virokaitis was a home owner.

He no longer owns a home, he no longer owns a car,

he no longer has money in the bank.

It was time for Virokaitis, Jelena and Mantis Puras to have their day in court.

Ricardas Virokaitis pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cheat the public purse.

He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Jelena was sentenced to two years and Mantis Puras got three years behind bars.

All three were sent straight to jail.

This was a thoroughly investigated case that resulted in three guilty pleas.

Revenue and Customs will pursue those who defraud tax credit

payments and we will bring them to justice.

'A job well done. Fraudsters take note - the system has now been tightened up

'to stop gangs like Virokaitis and his cronies from ever milking it again.'

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2012