Baiden/Dowding Saints and Scroungers


Baiden/Dowding

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This programme tracks down thieves.

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It exposes fraudsters and it brings help to those who really deserve it.

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This is the frontline against benefit fraud.

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This is Saints And Scroungers.

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Saints and Scroungers is all about busting benefit thieves

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who steal millions every year, and the crack teams of investigators

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determined to scupper their devious scams.

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And 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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The saints get help and the fraudsters get their come-uppance.

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Coming up on today's show, the woman who claimed she was a struggling single mother

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but used £75,000 of taxpayers' money

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to fund a series of luxury holidays abroad.

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The holidays were just amazing, they're not something you'd ever dream of going on yourself,

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so to actually see them was just unbelievable.

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And we meet a brave young woman who's battled all her life

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to achieve her dream of becoming a lawyer.

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Two days after I'd done my exams I went into hospital.

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I remember getting my results in hospital and celebrating

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with a Diet Coke and some Skittles.

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Could a four-legged friend be the lifeline she needs?

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Now, we'd all like to jet off on exotic foreign holidays

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or take the credit card out on a spending spree.

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But most of us realise that life's luxuries don't come free.

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Some people, though, don't think they should have to pay for them

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when the likes of you and me, the taxpayer, could foot the bill.

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Meet Jennifer Baiden,

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an apparently honest single mum from Newham in east London.

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She says she needs help to pay the bills

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after her boyfriend left her nine years ago.

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But it looks like Jennifer may not be as honest as she seems.

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She's suspected of happily ripping off the taxpayer to the tune of nearly £75,000.

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I've come to Newham to find out more about this suspicious-sounding case.

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Emma Vick works for Newham Council.

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It's her job to stop benefit fraud in the borough,

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so the inquiry into Jennifer Baiden is her responsibility,

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along with thousands of other cases every year.

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The London borough of Newham, what's it like?

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Newham is very diverse, very young population,

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very transient, lots of people moving in and out.

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And a lot of unemployment.

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-It's certainly not an affluent area, is it?

-Certainly not, very deprived.

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Got just over 101,000 households in the borough.

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And of those, how many people are claiming benefits?

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-Just over 42,000.

-Wow. I mean, that's 42%, give or take, isn't it?

-Yeah.

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-That is very high, isn't it?

-It is.

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What does that cost the council each year?

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We spend just under £300 million a year in benefits.

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-Gordon Bennett, it's a lot of money!

-It is.

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Emma's job is to make sure that that £300 million only goes to the people

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that really deserve it, but sadly some of those claimants are guilty

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of working the system and nicking cash that isn't rightfully theirs.

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Obviously wherever you're handing out money, anywhere in the world,

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giving people benefits, it's inevitable you are going to get people

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-who try and defraud the system.

-Mm-hm.

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-You run the fraud system here, don't you?

-I do.

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How much did you recoup last year?

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Last year my team uncovered £1.5 million-worth of benefit fraud.

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That's an awful lot of money you've got back,

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-but how does it compare in relation to the fraud out there?

-It's just the tip of the iceberg.

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Emma and the fraud team suspected

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that Jennifer Baiden is one of these fraudsters.

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She first submitted a claim for income support in August, 1999.

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In it, she said she was living with a partner

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but failed to fill in the section about his income,

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so on this occasion, her application was denied.

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Six months later in February, 2000, she submitted another application.

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Chantel Mathurin was the fraud investigator in charge of this case,

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and on review she noticed that this claim reported some big changes

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in Jennifer's circumstances.

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On this application form for income support,

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she didn't declare a partner, she said that he had gone abroad.

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She declared that she was a single parent now

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and had no other means of income.

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This time, Jennifer's application for income support was successful.

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And she was also found to be eligible for several extra benefits.

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Mrs Jennifer Baiden continued to receive income support

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from 2000 to 2009, so for nine years.

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She also received housing benefits and council tax benefit

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from the London borough of Newham.

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In total, she received £74,800 for income support,

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housing benefit and council tax benefit.

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£75,000 over nine years is a lot of money.

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But as a struggling single mum,

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it was help that she was, in theory, entitled to.

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And it all seemed fine until one day in 2009.

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A man turned up at the local Jobcentre and put in a claim

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for income support.

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News of this claim soon reached the Newham fraud team.

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The gentleman went into the Jobcentre and made claims

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purporting to be living at the address behind us

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in Plaistow, Newham.

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The address this man gave was the same as Jennifer Baiden's.

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The Department For Work And Pensions, who run Britain's Jobcentres,

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decided to run a check on the property.

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Checks were made with the benefit assessors

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and they confirmed that on the claim forms

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Mrs Baiden only declared herself as living in the property.

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This was all the fraud team needed to hear.

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If Jennifer Baiden had lied on her benefit claim form,

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there was a real danger that she was receiving benefits illegally.

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When the DWP reported that the man from the Jobcentre

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was also called Baiden, a full investigation kicked into gear.

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The Department for Work and Pensions

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needed to find out who this gentleman actually was.

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The fact that he had the same surname as her wouldn't necessarily mean that it was a partner,

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it could've been another member of her family.

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So they needed to find out the exact nature of their relationship

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and how long this gentleman had been living with her.

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If this mysterious Mr Baiden was for instance Jennifer's brother,

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who was staying with his sister while he looked for a job,

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there wouldn't have been a problem.

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But if he was her husband, living full-time with his family

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and footing the bills,

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then the £75,000 she had received of income support,

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housing benefit and council tax benefits

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was looking suspiciously like money obtained under false pretences.

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So the team needed to find out more information

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about Mrs Baiden's circumstances in view of this new development.

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They discovered that before he had contacted the Jobcentre,

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Mr Baiden had been making a decent wage

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working as a chauffeur for some very wealthy clients.

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So, this chauffeur's job, we're not talking about a minicab driver

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on a Friday night, are we?

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No, he was working for a high-end London company,

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so he'd be going to top-class London hotels, picking up by appointment,

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going to corporate dinners, things like that,

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and chauffeuring some probably quite wealthy people around London.

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Normally when you've got that sort of job,

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-you're talking about big bucks in tips.

-I would think so, yes.

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-Any idea what he was earning?

-He was earning on average about £750 a week,

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-which works out a minimum of £40,000 in the year.

-Wow.

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Now that they knew that Mr Baiden was a high earner,

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Jennifer Baiden's benefit claims

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and the story that she'd told Newham Council looked increasingly dodgy.

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OK, I want you to hold your horses here for just a second.

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Jennifer Baiden may not have been living alone as she had claimed.

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A man who has the same surname as her and who's working as a chauffeur for the rich

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was also claiming to live at the same address.

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But this doesn't prove anything was wrong.

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What the investigation team needed now was some hard evidence

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to link Jennifer and this Mr Baiden.

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And that evidence came in the pretty conclusive form of their marriage certificate,

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which the team unearthed in the local register office.

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From the certificate, we can tell that the residence at the time

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of the marriage for both Mr Baiden and Mrs Baiden was the same.

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For now, it's farewell to the fraudsters and hello to the people

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we call our saints - those who are in genuine need of help

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but are too proud or don't know how to claim what is rightfully theirs,

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and the people who point them in the right direction.

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When you're a child and you've got your whole life ahead of you,

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you can be whoever you want to be.

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But just imagine trying to achieve your dream

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when even a simple task like making a cup of tea is a daily struggle.

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27-year-old Kate Dowding has suffered with arthritis

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since she was a child.

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Throughout her life, she's had to undergo a series of painful operations,

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including a double hip replacement before she was 12.

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Despite her illness,

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Kate has always tried to lead as normal a life as possible.

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I was determined to show that I could do just as well

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as everyone else, if not better.

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Kate had set her heart on becoming a lawyer

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and passed her all her exams with flying colours,

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and won a place at university.

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My parents were really proud of me. They'd always supported me

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through my GCSEs and A-levels. They were really pleased

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that I got into the university that I wanted to get to.

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But soon after her A-level results came through,

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Kate's mother passed away after a three-year battle with cancer.

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She was told she had two weeks and she hung on for six.

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And I think part of that was kind of seeing my A-level results

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and what have you.

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Kate and her dad soldiered on together.

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For the first year, she managed an exhausting schedule,

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being looked after by her father at home

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and by a series of carers at university,

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paid for by the benefits system.

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That was sort of a blessing and a curse in a way,

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because it meant that people didn't really talk to me,

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cos I was always with my assistant.

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It's hard to imagine just how difficult life must have been for Kate,

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but then, in her darkest hour,

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she got a glimpse of something that could turn her life around.

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She was at home watching television

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when a programme came on featuring a charity called Canine Partners.

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Owen, get the washing. Go on, get it. Good girl.

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They provide assistance dogs, trained to perform a whole range of tasks

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to help people to disabilities.

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Those dogs are really sought after.

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How much hope did you hold out for getting one?

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Well, when I first applied,

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I honestly thought it was quite a low chance,

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there would probably be people far more deserving than me.

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But I was absolutely thrilled to be invited up to the training centre.

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The assessment days are the chance for the partners to come and learn

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about what having one of our dogs is about,

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and it's our chance to assess people that are interested in having a dog.

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We need to be sure that the dog's welfare will be met by that person,

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we'll also be looking at their ability to motivate the dog

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and to get it to work for them and to focus on them.

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Kate passed all these tests with flying colours,

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and within a couple of months they'd matched her up with Zara,

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a one-year-old Labrador.

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I met Zara on one of the assessment days.

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And we just clicked. She definitely chose me.

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Kate and Zara went from strength to strength,

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and in 2008 she graduated with a 2:1 degree in Law.

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Through sheer courage and perseverance,

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Kate's dream of becoming a lawyer was about to come true.

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In September, 2010, she got a job as a trainee solicitor

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and went up to Birmingham for a three-day induction course.

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Dad had come with me as my carer.

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We were waiting at the train station to come home from that,

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and Dad just collapsed

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and unfortunately the paramedics couldn't revive him

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and he passed away from heart failure.

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It was horrible.

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It was probably the worst day of my life, to be honest,

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and it was just so sudden.

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There was no warning and I'd been so reliant on my dad.

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It just turned my life completely upside down.

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So how are things now, then?

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They're still difficult, obviously it's still fairly recent

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and very raw for me. But it has been a difficult year.

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Kate's new employers made arrangements to transfer her

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to their Bristol office, and in March, 2011,

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she finally started work.

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It's really good to know that I've been reliant on benefits

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for quite a few years, because of my disability

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and sort of taking from the system, really, but it's good to know

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that I'm putting something back now

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and I'm not relying on the benefits as much.

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Good girl.

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Although Kate's largely done away with her benefits,

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we are still giving her a helping hand

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through the Government's Access To Work scheme.

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The scheme assesses the needs of each disabled person,

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then it pays for specific items that will help them work

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alongside their colleagues.

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We've obtained the wheelchair.

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We're also looking into some voice recognition software for her.

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Everything has the aim

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of ensuring Kate has a normal working environment

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and she's able to do everything that all of us can do in the office.

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How do you see the future now?

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I think it's a lot brighter with Zara than I thought it would be before.

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Even through everything that's happened with Dad

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and what have you in the last year,

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I still see a future for myself.

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Hopefully, you know, in law and with a good career.

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Back now to the world of the scrounger,

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and the case against benefit cheat Jennifer Baiden is heating up.

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The discovery of her marriage certificate was the first piece

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of concrete proof that Jennifer was not all she seemed.

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Posing as a hard-up single mum whose boyfriend has left her with a child,

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this suspected fraudster has been hiding the fact

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that she's been living with a bloke who turns out to be her husband,

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on top of that, the father of her child,

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and to rub salt into the wounds, also has a well-paid job.

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Newham Council and the Department For Work And Pensions suspect

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that Jennifer has been falsely claiming income support,

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housing benefit and council tax benefit to the tune of £75,000.

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Emma Vick has been leading the investigation on behalf of the council.

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Basically we joint work with the Department Of Work And Pensions.

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They investigate income support and we investigate housing benefit and council tax benefit.

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So when one of us finds a fraud that has all of those benefits,

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we tend to joint work so we can make sure

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the whole of the criminality is investigated in one case,

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-so it saves time...

-You've pooled your resources, basically.

-Yes.

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Joining forces has paid off.

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After months of careful investigation,

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it was time for the police to move in.

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The Department For Work And Pensions believed they had enough information

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to go in and arrest Mrs Baiden

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and then looked to interview her under caution.

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They arrested her with the police, who then searched her premises.

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The police search of her flat uncovered vital evidence

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that left the investigators in no doubt that,

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far from struggling to make ends meet on her benefits,

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Jennifer Baiden was living the high life.

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They found evidence that she'd been on quite a few nice holidays while she'd been claiming benefits.

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You can see here that she went on holiday to Jamaica, it was in 2008.

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And this is a woman who supposedly is living life on the breadline?

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-That's right.

-Gordon Bennett!

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She also went another trip in Jamaica the same year,

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-so she actually went to Jamaica twice in one year.

-Two a year?!

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I don't believe my ears!

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Two Caribbean holidays in 12 months?

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Who does she think she is, Coleen Rooney?!

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And that wasn't all.

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She also went to Canada in 2007, and that was also nearly £2,000.

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We're not talking about two weeks camping in Skegness!

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No. The holiday themselves were just amazing.

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They're not something you'd ever dream of going on, so to see them was unbelievable.

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All of a sudden we've got a woman who's not just abusing the system,

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-she's having luxury holidays, more than one a year.

-That's right, yes.

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She's sticking her fingers up at every decent taxpayer in the country.

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It's just obscene. It's just saying, "I can do what I want,

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"and you're going to pay for it."

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-Yeah, and every other mug out there.

-That's right, yeah.

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But then came the piece de resistance.

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The police search also uncovered some copies of Jennifer's bank statements,

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and what they contained was dynamite.

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The team knew that Mr Baiden had a high-paying job as a chauffeur,

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but they couldn't prove that he was contributing

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to Jennifer's household. Until now.

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This is his wages here from the company he was working for,

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and this is her bank account, so this shows that his money is going into her bank account

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-and then it's available for her to spend.

-She's got that income

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going into her bank account and she's not telling you about it?

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That's right. And those figures there are his wages,

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and you can see they're going in every fortnight.

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It's all a far cry from the sorry picture Jennifer's been painting

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of an abandoned women struggling to get by on her own.

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So let's just get this straight.

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All the time she's claiming to be a single mum

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with absolutely no income at all,

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yet she's out there earning a rather handsome wage

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and paying a considerable chunk of it directly into her bank account.

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The DWP now had direct proof that Jennifer Baiden had been lying.

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While they were searching her flat, Jennifer was waiting

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to be interviewed at Forest Gate Police Station in east London.

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The first thing the DWP wanted to know

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was how she had funded her extravagant lifestyle.

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When she was asked how she managed to afford

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to pay for these foreign holidays,

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she informed that family members had given her the money

0:19:020:19:06

to go abroad.

0:19:060:19:07

The next question they wanted answering

0:19:090:19:11

was what exactly was her relationship to Mr Baiden.

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Remember, they've already found her marriage certificate,

0:19:150:19:19

but on her benefit application, she said she was single

0:19:190:19:21

and was bringing up their child alone.

0:19:210:19:24

This time round, she had a different story.

0:19:240:19:27

She stated that she had married him in a traditional African ceremony

0:19:270:19:31

and that it wasn't a legal marriage.

0:19:310:19:33

She also said that he frequented the property from time to time

0:19:330:19:37

and looked after the children,

0:19:370:19:39

but didn't permanently reside at the property with her.

0:19:390:19:43

Not a legal marriage? Pull the other one.

0:19:440:19:47

That certificate looks like the real deal to me.

0:19:470:19:49

And as for not living at the property, it didn't look like that

0:19:490:19:52

when the police went round.

0:19:520:19:54

A number of documents were uncovered when the property,

0:19:540:19:57

which is the block of flats behind me, was searched by the police.

0:19:570:20:00

Some of those documents included bank statements

0:20:000:20:03

in the name of Mr Baiden at the address.

0:20:030:20:05

Also found were male clothing in the main bedroom

0:20:070:20:11

and male grooming products in the bathroom.

0:20:110:20:14

It's looking like our single mum is about as single

0:20:150:20:19

as a double cheeseburger. But that's not all.

0:20:190:20:23

See, as well as keeping that small matter of having a husband quiet,

0:20:230:20:26

it looks like Jennifer was keeping shtum about something else.

0:20:260:20:29

For the time being, Jennifer Baiden was released on bail,

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but ordered to return six months later.

0:20:350:20:37

This gave Newham Council time to build up their case,

0:20:380:20:41

and there was one big question that needed answering.

0:20:410:20:45

When the police showed up at Jennifer's flat with their search warrant,

0:20:450:20:48

they found her with not just one, but two children.

0:20:480:20:52

A call to the local register office

0:20:520:20:54

revealed that this second child had the same father as the first.

0:20:540:20:59

Good old Mr Baiden.

0:20:590:21:01

This child was born in October, 2003,

0:21:010:21:04

three years after Jennifer had declared on her benefit application

0:21:040:21:08

that he had upped and left her and that she was coping alone.

0:21:080:21:13

We believe she didn't tell us about the second child

0:21:130:21:15

born in October, 2003 because this was during the time

0:21:150:21:19

that she claimed to be a single parent.

0:21:190:21:22

We believe that she was trying to hide the fact

0:21:220:21:25

that she was still in a relationship with the child's father, Mr Baiden.

0:21:250:21:30

And she definitely couldn't risk that,

0:21:320:21:34

because if the authorities had got wind of the fact

0:21:340:21:36

that a high-earning father was on the scene,

0:21:360:21:39

that would have exposed Jennifer's lies and put an end

0:21:390:21:42

to all the lucrative benefits she was claiming.

0:21:420:21:45

The lengths that some people will go to to try and avoid detection.

0:21:470:21:51

I mean, denying the existence of your own flesh and blood,

0:21:510:21:54

your own child! It defies belief, really.

0:21:540:21:57

By the time Jennifer came back in for her second interview,

0:22:000:22:03

the case for the prosecution was ready.

0:22:030:22:06

This time, she was interviewed by Chantel herself

0:22:060:22:09

on behalf of Newham Council.

0:22:090:22:11

The reason for this interview is we believe you failed to declare a change in your circumstances

0:22:160:22:21

and possibly made some false declarations on application forms

0:22:210:22:24

for housing benefits and council tax benefit.

0:22:240:22:28

This time around, Jennifer had got herself a solicitor

0:22:280:22:31

who read out a prepared statement.

0:22:310:22:33

I deny the allegations.

0:22:340:22:36

I have not acted dishonestly

0:22:360:22:38

at any stage in relation to my benefit claims.

0:22:380:22:41

My husband comes and goes from the house, but we do not live together.

0:22:410:22:45

In the prepared statement she denied the allegations put to her

0:22:460:22:50

and also denied that she had acted dishonestly.

0:22:500:22:54

She stated that she was a single parent, and although her partner

0:22:540:22:57

came to the property from time to time, he did not live with her.

0:22:570:23:01

Jennifer's statement didn't wash with Chantel.

0:23:030:23:07

She refused to answer any further questions,

0:23:070:23:09

but by that stage, the facts spoke for themselves.

0:23:090:23:13

-So what happened next?

-Then we prepared the papers for prosecution,

0:23:130:23:17

-and the case went to court.

-Are we talking about trial by jury?

0:23:170:23:20

Yes, it was held at Inner London Crown Court and it was a jury.

0:23:200:23:23

Jennifer's trial began on the 4th of April, 2011.

0:23:240:23:28

Despite the weight of evidence against her,

0:23:280:23:31

she entered a plea of not guilty.

0:23:310:23:33

How did she think she was going to get away with it

0:23:330:23:36

when you've got all this evidence here?

0:23:360:23:39

We don't know, she just decided from day one that she wouldn't cooperate.

0:23:390:23:43

He wasn't living with her and she was not guilty,

0:23:430:23:45

it didn't matter what was put in front of her,

0:23:450:23:47

-she maintained she wasn't guilty.

-So all along, she either thought

0:23:470:23:50

she was very clever and she could beat the system

0:23:500:23:52

-or that she was innocent. Which one do you think it was?

-She thought she was clever.

0:23:520:23:56

-Was she?

-No, she wasn't, because the jury found her guilty.

0:23:560:24:00

Months of detailed investigation

0:24:010:24:04

by the combined fraud teams of Newham Council and the DWP

0:24:040:24:07

had finally paid off.

0:24:070:24:09

On the 13th of April, 2011, Jennifer Baiden was convicted on four counts

0:24:100:24:15

of false representation, one count relating to income support

0:24:150:24:20

and three counts of falsely claiming housing benefits

0:24:200:24:22

and council tax benefits.

0:24:220:24:25

In total, the judge found her guilty

0:24:260:24:28

of swindling the public purse

0:24:280:24:30

out of £75,000.

0:24:300:24:33

The date for sentencing was set for the 12th of May.

0:24:340:24:37

But on the day, while they were waiting to hear what the judge had decided,

0:24:370:24:41

some news came out of the blue.

0:24:410:24:44

We were expecting her to be sentenced this morning,

0:24:440:24:46

but it transpired that there was a query

0:24:460:24:49

as to whether she may have some previous convictions.

0:24:490:24:52

The court had discovered that Jennifer had been convicted

0:24:520:24:55

of false accounting in 1997, while she was working at an NHS care home.

0:24:550:25:01

She denied this allegation,

0:25:010:25:03

stating her passport had been stolen

0:25:030:25:06

and that someone had obviously used her identity

0:25:060:25:08

and had been convicted of this crime.

0:25:080:25:11

The DWP and the prosecutors did some more digging

0:25:110:25:14

and they found that the fingerprints of the person who had been convicted

0:25:140:25:18

for this false accounting matched those of Mrs Jennifer Baiden.

0:25:180:25:22

Jennifer's desperate attempt to lie her way out of trouble again

0:25:230:25:27

didn't do her any good, and on the 27th of May, 2011,

0:25:270:25:31

she went back to court to hear her sentence.

0:25:310:25:33

In summing up, the judge said, "I consider you to be dishonest.

0:25:340:25:37

"You told a series of lies to people and you are now taking the brunt."

0:25:370:25:43

-So, what did she get?

-She got a 12-month custodial sentence,

0:25:430:25:46

-but that was then suspended for two years.

-And why?

0:25:460:25:49

The judge felt her husband had a part to play in the fraud

0:25:490:25:52

and that it was unfair of her to shoulder the whole blame,

0:25:520:25:55

and therefore he didn't send her to prison.

0:25:550:25:57

So the judge took into account that Jennifer Baiden's children

0:25:570:26:01

are still very young and would be deprived of their mother

0:26:010:26:04

if she was in prison.

0:26:040:26:05

However, if she reoffends in the next couple of years,

0:26:050:26:08

she'll be sent down.

0:26:080:26:09

I'd have liked her to have gone to prison, I think she deserved it.

0:26:110:26:14

It's unfortunate that she didn't,

0:26:140:26:15

but it's a decision for the judge to make.

0:26:150:26:17

And as much as I can be disappointed, it's not my decision.

0:26:170:26:21

Meanwhile, Emma and her team are doing everything they can

0:26:210:26:24

to recoup the £75,000 that Jennifer Baiden stole.

0:26:240:26:28

We'll pursue her as much as we can, we'll take her to County Court,

0:26:300:26:34

we will do whatever we can to get our money back,

0:26:340:26:36

so we're pursuing that at the moment.

0:26:360:26:39

It's been a painstaking investigation

0:26:400:26:42

and the fraud team have worked tirelessly to bring Jennifer Baiden to justice.

0:26:420:26:46

But it does go to show, there's no such thing as a free lunch

0:26:460:26:49

and certainly not a free luxury holiday.

0:26:490:26:51

And if you want to live the high life at the expense of the taxpayer,

0:26:510:26:54

then the fraud team are going to bring you down.

0:26:540:26:57

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