McKnight/Ford Saints and Scroungers

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

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

This is Saints And Scroungers.

'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.

'And 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,

how a woman used her husband and her children

to steal over £100,000 in false benefit claims.

It's the highest amount that I've seen fraudulently claimed.

'And a man whose family shopping trip turned into the worst day of his life.'

I was assaulted and after all the swelling and things had gone down,

I didn't have any sight left.

We all have our favourite bands and some of us even like going to gigs.

Some fans will even travel the length and breadth of the country in search of their favourite stars.

But going to concerts is an expensive hobby

and when you're using taxpayers' money to fund your obsession with boy bands, that's not on.

'Meet Jayne McKnight, a music fan from Wolverhampton.

'She enjoys nothing more than listening to her favourite bands.

'And why not? She's had a tough time.

'With a husband in a low paid job

'and three out of her four children disabled, she's reliant on benefits.

'But appearances can be deceptive. She's suspected of being a massive benefit cheat

'who has conned the British taxpayer out of £112,000 in benefits.

'Fraud investigator Andy Millican is hot on her trail.'

Jayne McKnight's case was one of the ones that was flagged up

purely by virtue of the amount of the claim involved, which was in excess of £20,000 per annum.

'That's a tidy sum in anyone's book.

'But how was she able to claim all that?

'Well, to start with, it seemed she had four children to look after, was unemployed

'and her husband was in a low paid job.

'Surely she deserved extra help with childcare and tax credits. Didn't she?

'I've come to meet Clare Merrills from HM Revenue and Customs

'who are responsible for all tax credits

'to get some clarification about the kind of help out there

'for people like McKnight.'

Claire, tell me about working tax credits. What are they?

Working tax credits are for people who are working.

So if you are working and you're on a lower income, then you may be entitled to working tax credits

and the first thing to do is give us a call, explain your circumstances, details of your household income,

how many hours you're working, that type of thing.

We will then work out if you're entitled to it.

If you are, we'll send the form back to you showing exactly what we think you're entitled to.

You need to check that and then we'll start paying it to you.

'So in 2003, the McKnights made a joint claim for tax credits.'

As a result of that application, payment was processed

resulting in amounts of over £6,000 in respect of child tax credit

and over £2,000 in respect of the working tax credit element.

'But that was just the beginning.

'During the course of that first year

'Jayne McKnight made 25 calls to the helpline to add further elements to her payments.'

'One call was to confirm that one of her children was now disabled.'

As a result of that, her claim was amended,

which enabled her, for the whole year, to claim in excess of £10,000.

'The childcare element of working tax credit

'enables people to get back to work and reclaim a percentage of childcare costs.

'Having a disabled child increases the amount you're able to claim.'

It sounds fair enough to me. A child with a disability might need specialist care,

and like most people, I'm all for giving deserving parents a helping hand.

'But McKnight's claims didn't stop there.

'Time for her to press that redial button again.'

During 2004/5, Jayne McKnight reported some changes in circumstances

and these included the fact that her husband was no longer employed

and, in fact, he was severely disabled.

In addition, she then went on to say that two more of her children were also disabled.

Furthermore, she then stated that she had registered

for employment with a temping agency.

This allowed her to increase the element of working tax credits for her, as well.

'More changes mean more money. So what's the grand total now?'

Her tax credit award had increased to over £13,000.

Now, that's an awful lot of money, but then looking after a disabled husband and three disabled children

is no easy task. Surely people like this need all the help they can get.

'And Jayne McKnight was certainly not shy in coming forward

'to ask for that help.'

For the year 2005/6,

she'd reported that her working hours had reduced from 20 to 16.

The net result of all this was that the total award in payment

was almost £17,000.

'It was beginning to feel as though Jayne McKnight

'had Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs helpline on speed dial

'as once again is seems the payments were just not enough.

'During the year 2006-2007,

'she also claimed that her children were in childcare due to her part-time job

'and she needed extra help with that,

'boosting the grand total for that year to over £23,500.

'And if you thought that was the end of it, think again.'

By the year 2007/8, she was receiving almost £30,000 per annum in tax credits,

which I understand is equivalent to a gross annual salary of £40,000 a year.

'Although benefits like these are clearly lifesavers for those people genuinely in need,

'every year benefit cheats cost the British taxpayer, that's you and me,

'a staggering one and a half billion pounds.'

In this country, how much is paid out each year in working tax credits and child tax credits?

Tax credits as a whole, we pay out £27 billion a year.

-Billion?

-Yeah, that's £27 billion to six million families.

Right, I'm shocked at that amount. How much of that is fraudulent?

Back in 2009, the figure for error and fraud, so that's people filling in forms incorrectly...

-Making mistakes.

-..making mistakes, was standing at just under nine percent.

2010, we'd got that down to just under seven and a half percent.

Our aim is that we will have it to five percent or less.

'Now, of course, if Jayne McKnight's claims were genuine then she was entitled to the money.

'But with such high stakes involved, the fraud team needed to make sure she was telling the truth.

'The main undercover investigator working with Andy on this case

'was keen to pursue all the avenues open to her.

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

The amount being paid to Jayne McKnight was quite high

and therefore we decided to cross-match with other government departments

and indeed our own systems to ensure that the information held matched against ours.

'This cross-check immediately started the alarm bells ringing,

'beginning with her disabled husband.'

We did some checks and discovered that he was working for a local newspaper company

in Wolverhampton as a delivery driver.

Jayne had mentioned that her husband was disabled because he was currently suffering from gout.

One of the jobs that we would do is to contact the DWP

to match that information against what she had told us.

The specific check that we asked the Department for Work and Pensions to conduct

was to check if Jayne McKnight's husband was in receipt of the Disability Living Allowance

and they came back and confirmed to us that he'd never been registered for DLA at all.

So McKnight's unemployed husband is actually working as a delivery driver for a local newspaper

and not receiving Disability Living Allowance.

But could he still be disabled, just not claiming it?

'There was only one way to find out.'

We went down to his employer.

We spoke to them at length and they confirmed details they had submitted to us

in terms of his pay and his tax,

but they also then went on to say that, as far as their records were concerned,

he'd never been registered as a disabled employee with them.

It was quite clear from the information that the employer had told us

that Mr McKnight would never have been able to fulfil his duties

of lifting heavy loads of newspapers and delivering them to shops

with the disabilities described by Jayne McKnight.

'Jayne McKnight's claims are fast beginning to unravel.

'Her report relating to her husband has proved to be entirely false.

'Now that one claim has been blown out of the water,

'what about the others?

'Was it true that she had not one but three disabled children?

'Will Jayne McKnight's lies finally catch her out?'

They confirmed that Jayne McKnight's children

had never been registered with that particular childcare provider and she hadn't incurred those costs.

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

'the 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.'

Sometimes some of the simplest decisions you might have to make

could affect you for the rest of your life.

Imagine you're off to the shops with your family to get a few of life's essentials.

What could possibly go wrong?

'Chris Ford was happy with his life.

'He had his dream job working on super yachts

'and would come home to his loving family.

'But one fateful day he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

I went shopping with the family. I was assaulted

and after all the swelling and things had gone down, I didn't have any sight left.

'Chris has been blind ever since this brutal attack.

'One minute he had his sight, the next it was ruthlessly taken from him.

'Through no fault of his own, this proud man who's always looked after his family

'and stood on his own two feet could now no longer even walk down the street without help.

'I've come to meet Chris to find out more.'

Tell me a bit about your life. What did you do, work and things like that?

Well, I used to work for a local boat builder.

I did everything in the job. Laminating, carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, everything.

-Really just got hands-on.

-You're quite a family man, aren't you?

Really, there is no other life for me.

My family are the most important thing in my whole life.

Everybody around you is affected because they don't know what to say to you,

they don't know how you help you, they don't know how they can comfort you.

They can see you going down this hole

and they can't pull you back at first

and you do, you think to yourself, "Life's over, that's it".

'Even living in what should've been the safe familiar haven of the family home

'held hidden, unexpected dangers for Chris.'

It's really hard to be living in a house that was yours

and it feels like someone else's house sometimes.

People put a chair in the wrong place and you walk into it

or people leave something in the wrong place.

You have to be careful.

At first, it was like a prison cell, really.

Couldn't go anywhere, couldn't do anything. You know...

It would be quite natural for anybody who's been through what you've been through

-to go into a state of depression. Did that happen?

-Yes.

It came to the point where I thought, "Is it really worth it?" You know?

If it hadn't been for Brenda at the time and the thought of the kids being without me,

then yeah, I would've probably gone down the road

and just carried on walking into the sea and not bothered.

Yeah. Sorry.

-Yeah.

-You tell me if you want to stop, mate.

-No, you're all right.

No, but that's how black it gets, you know?

From here, I'm in a good place now,

but when I think back how bad it was,

yeah, you know, you really do...

..hit rock bottom.

When you were at that point, money's worrying you, your life's worrying you,

the fact that everyone's dependent on you is worrying you. How close did you get to losing your house?

Very close. We had bailiffs

sitting outside in white vans waiting to put the padlocks on.

That was my lowest point, you know? I'm a very, very proud person.

I like to think that I can stand on my own two feet.

'But just around the corner was his very own saint.

'Meet Carol Jenkins,

'a home-visiting coordinator at independent charity the Dorset Blind Association.'

My role is to visit people, make assessments

and then look to see

what we are able to do for that particular person.

It may be something from our book clubs, through to dancing,

through to one of the many activities that we run.

'Carol runs the Lighthouse Group,

'a social networking group for people with visual impairment,

'and she was getting ready to welcome Chris.'

I actually had visions of loads of old geezers, excuse my French, loads of old geezers sitting there

all with big thick-rimmed glasses, talking about knitting circles and wanting to do bowling.

It wasn't like that.

It's really good to have peer support. That is one of the big things I try to push for.

You get to know more people, it's starting to encourage your independence,

which is a must within a family.

'Although Carol had been able to help Chris to find his feet socially, it was not enough,

'and now she was determined to make sure he was getting the benefit help that he needed.

I was very surprised they weren't claiming any of the benefits they were entitled to.

I was even more surprised to find the financial aspect that was going on in the house.

They're a proud family, they don't like to claim for things

and they didn't actually realise a lot of things were their right.

'Finally, with Carol's help, Chris was able to apply for the benefits he needed and was entitled to,

'and these benefits started to make all the difference.'

You get a small amount of money from different places and it adds up.

And without Carol trying to help us and put us down that road, we would have lost everything.

It's made a huge difference to Chris and to the family,

because previously their money coming in was very, very minimal.

And it's just opened lots of doors for them.

There's a lot more, I don't know, peace within the family.

'And most importantly, the fear of losing their home was finally lifted

'and Chris and his family could look forward to the future.

'But the one thing that could really have put the wind back in his sails

'was the one thing Chris was very nearly too afraid to try.'

Carol says, "Look, we've got one of these taster sessions to go sailing."

I said, "Oh." You know, I didn't want to do it.

I had a passion for it before.

And it was almost like, if I had not been able to do it...

..then it would've been just one more thing, a nail in the coffin saying,

"There you are, mate, told you, you're no good. That's it."

'But Chris plucked up his courage once again to face this next challenge,

'encouraged by the yachting charity's chairperson, Anna Moreland.'

Sailability is an organisation that you might find all over the country,

and basically it will be a group of volunteers who have got together

to enable anyone with a disability to enjoy sailing.

'As for Chris, he found that his fears were swept away.'

The first time I went out on the boats with Sailability,

it was... Well, it was out of the world.

The experience you got back, there was an adrenalin buzz,

and when I came off the water for the very, very first time,

Anna, she was standing on the pontoon on the side

and she said I had a grin from one ear to the other.

That really summed up how I felt inside and outside.

-Chris, ready to tack?

-Yeah.

We saw Chris get off the boat with a huge grin on his face.

And we've seen him ever since. He just loved it.

He found it had given him all his freedom back that he thought he'd never do again,

so it was an immediate win for him.

I tell you what's very clear to me now.

If Chris didn't have the love from his family

and the help and assistance from Dorset Blind Association, he would be in a very bad place.

But I'll tell you what, that man down there has got the biggest smile I've ever seen on anybody's face,

and he's enjoying life to the full.

-See you, guys!

-Take care! Bye!

'Back in the world of the scroungers,

'the fraud team at HMRC are closing in on the case of Jayne McKnight.

'She has been claiming to have a part-time job, a disabled husband

'who's out of work, and three disabled children to care for,

'which means she's happily banking nearly £30,000 a year

'in working tax credits, including the childcare element.'

..which I understand is equivalent to a gross annual salary of £40,000 a year.

'But the investigators suspect she's up to no good.

'They need to find out whether her children really are disabled,

'and whether she's entitled to the money she's been receiving.

'It was time for HMRC to dig deeper. Back to their undercover operator.'

We contacted the DWP to see if any claims had ever been received in respect of the four children.

They confirmed that they had submitted claims.

However, no claim had ever been paid for any of the children.

'And why should that matter?'

If someone isn't registered as disabled with the Department for Work and Pensions,

then that disqualifies them from claiming any subsequent tax credits related to that.

So not only is her husband able bodied, it seems there's nothing wrong with her kids, either.

It looks like McKnight has been telling a few porky-pies.

'Just because her claim that her husband wasn't working was false,

'it didn't mean she wasn't actually working herself. Or did it?'

Because Jayne had said she was working, we started to look at the HMRC PAYE systems.

And we couldn't find any trace of any tax being paid for Jayne.

So we approached the employers that she had stated on her claim form.

'But surely there'd be some tax returns to show for all that work.'

As a result of our checks, we discovered that Jayne McKnight hadn't actually paid any tax

for the whole period for which she was claiming tax credits.

Subsequently we went out to visit these employers

and they conformed that Jayne McKnight had never worked for them.

'McKnight was able to claim working tax credit to top up her wages

'from her low-paid, part-time job.

'This also meant that she was eligible for the childcare element of working tax credit,

'to help her pay for childcare costs while she worked.

'Now, if the job was bogus, what about the childminder?'

We contacted them, visited them, checked their records

and they confirmed Jayne McKnight's children had never been registered with that childcare provider,

and she hadn't incurred the costs she claimed to have done.

'This was the final piece of evidence the team needed.

'Incredibly, up to this point, Jayne McKnight had been swindling the system for eight years.'

-Why didn't you catch her earlier?

-The system was one of pay now, check later.

Now we would certainly catch her out a lot sooner than we did,

if she even got any payment in the first place.

Would it be fair to say you allow too much trust with people?

I think the system was all about getting the money to people who really needed it when they needed it,

which was straight away, and maybe, yes, we did put too much trust in people.

But that doesn't make it right to commit a fraud.

'It was time to arrest McKnight and confront her with the shameful truth of her deception.'

SIREN WAILS

A team of officers went along to the house

to arrest her and also to conduct the search of the premises.

We were looking for signs of wealth, effectively,

to see what she could have spent all this money on.

Other than the obligatory plasma TV, children's game consoles,

we didn't find any obvious signs of wealth.

Now, 112 grand must have gone somewhere,

so what had this greedy so-and-so done with all that cash?

'All was about to be revealed when the hunt for evidence homed in on the internet.'

We conducted some social networking checks and discovered that Jayne

had actually been going to see lots of boy bands.

'And she was gallivanting all over the country to do it,

'even making sure she got the pictures to prove it.

'To the boy bands she idolised, like JLS, Westlife and Boyzone,

'Jayne McKnight was just another fan.

'There is no way they could have known she was a fraudster,

'and neither did the social networking sites she used to show her photos.'

It's fair to say, in the absence of any obvious signs of wealth in Jayne McKnight's house,

what the tax credit claims have enabled her to do is effectively act as a groupie,

following these boy bands around the country, which is no cheap thing to do.

So this poor, deserving mother of a disabled family

has actually been hobnobbing with the stars at the expense of you and I, the taxpayer.

And then she's been rubbing our noses in it on the internet. Unbelievable.

'Time for her to face the music.'

In her interview under caution, Jayne McKnight,

when faced with all the evidence put before her

admitted that her children weren't disabled,

her husband wasn't disabled,

that she'd never worked for the companies she claimed she had

and that her husband had, in fact always been employed,

and not unemployed as she'd claimed back in 2004.

'But just as it seemed she was coming clean,

'the team uncovered a thieving twist to this fraudster's past.'

Jayne had a previous offence on her record for committing tax credit fraud and income support fraud.

She was sentenced to seven months but this was suspended.

And it is noticeable, actually, that she started committing tax credit fraud

with HM Revenue and Customs some year or so later.

'Unbelievable. But I've a feeling this benefit thief

'is about to get the comeuppance that even she won't be able to ignore.

'It was time for Jayne McKnight to have her day in court.

'The jury heard that taking into account both the wages of her husband

'and the amounts fraudulently claimed in tax credits by Jayne McKnight between 2003 and 2011,

'the McKnight household pocketed a staggering £250,000.

'In May 2011, Jayne McKnight pleaded guilty to benefit fraud

'totalling £112,147

'one of the highest amounts of individual fraud ever seen.

'She was sentenced to two years in jail.

'Charges were not brought against McKnight's husband

'as there was no evidence that he knew what she was up to.'

Tax credits are designed to help the most needy in society,

and what Jayne McKnight has done is steal money from the public purse

and the government will not tolerate people who commit fraud such as this.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd