Lee Jones/Driscoll Saints and Scroungers

Billions of pounds of our taxes should be going to the people

that really need it. Trouble is, people keep stealing it.

Welcome to the world of Saints and Scroungers.

Saints and Scroungers is all about busting benefit thieves

who steal millions every year, and a crack team 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 today: It's double trouble as fraud investigators

target a woman who is trying to hide her real identity.

She just made the story up in order to put us off the trail.

But will a tale of two birth certificates and some

undercover surveillance prove this Jamaican citizen is

messing the benefit system around?

His was a legitimate claim and hers was not.

One family struggle to keep their heads above water.

We're proud people, we still want to work hard and earn our living

so we can walk down the road and hold our heads up high, basically.

But their lack of cash is having

a serious impact on their son's schoolwork.

What are we going to do? How are we going to get a computer,

because everything at school, homework wise, is computer based?

Can a saint help solve their web woes?

One of the many things that makes this country so great

is that we look after our most vulnerable citizens.

But if you're not one of our citizens, and you shouldn't even

be in the country, what on earth makes you think

you can claim our benefits? Beats me.

This is Clover Jameson.

Originally from Jamaica, she's a single mum of one

and lives in Edmonton, North London.

It's fair to say she's had something of a chequered past

and has served time in a UK prison for drug related offences.

But, having been released in 2003, she's stated looking for work

and claiming Jobseeker's Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions,

as well as housing and council tax benefit from her local council.

Enfield council's fraud investigation team

is headed up by Leslie Marshall.

Clover Jameson had made a claim for income support in February 2004,

and when she made that claim she supplied some identification.

The identification she actually supplied was the release letter from HMP Send,

Where she'd served her prison sentence for drug related offences.

The council took Clover's prison release letter at face value

and set her up in a rented flat in Edmonton which was paid for with housing benefit.

Housing benefit is a means tested benefit designed to help

people pay all or part of their rent.

You may qualify for housing benefit

if you're on a low income and have less than £16,000 in savings.

The annual national housing benefit bill is over £20 billion

and five and a half billion of that is spent in London alone.

With a secure roof over her head, in July 2005 Clover gave birth to a baby boy.

By 2007, she had decided it was time for the two of them to move house.

Clover Jameson informed us she'd moved address from Felixstowe Road

to Balham Road in Edmonton, North London, and that she wanted

to continue to receive housing benefit and council tax benefit at this address.

With a new address noted in the system, Clover continued to receive

her benefit, which now also included child benefit and child tax credit.

So Clover Jameson lives in Balham Road. She's a single parent

and gets benefits from both Enfield council and the DWP.

Nothing wrong with that.

And Clover had one more bit of paperwork to attend to that year.

She decided to apply for a UK driving licence

and sent an application form to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

The DVLA.

But this application turned out to be not quite so straightforward.

Clover Jameson submitted an application for a driving licence,

and with the application she supplied a UK passport.

But the DVLA in doing their mandatory checks established

that that UK passport was a false passport.

Alarm bells started to ring at the DWP.

Until now, Clover Jameson's only form of ID had been

her prison release letter.

This Jamaican citizen had somehow acquired a British passport

and this fake passport had been rumbled by the DWP.

They got straight on the phone to Enfield Council who were also

paying benefits to her.

They suspected that Clover Jameson was using a false identity

to claim those benefits, and a false UK passport.

Having received the tip off, Enfield council's dedicated

fraud investigation team started to look into the case.

They are determined to crack down on all types of benefit fraud

in their borough but they face an uphill struggle.

More that £800,000 worth of housing benefit alone was

identified as being fraudulently claimed in Enfield in 2010,

and that number may be just the tip of the iceberg.

The case was passed to the team's undercover fraud investigator.

She needs to remain anonymous to ensure she can go after as many

benefit scroungers as possible without being identified.

Her first step was to familiarise herself with Clover's file,

and it soon become obvious that Clover had been keeping herself

pretty busy to ensure her benefits would keep on coming.

Can you tell me, chronologically, what benefits Clover Jameson was claiming?

In February 2004, she applied for income support to the DWP,

and in turn she then made an application for housing

and council tax benefit to Enfield Council in March 2004.

Give me an idea how much we're talking about?

Well, housing benefit would have been about £190 per week,

to cover the rent for the property she was renting.

She then, as part of verification process, submitted another claim form,

a postal review form to Enfield Council in February 2005,

and stated that her circumstances hadn't changed.

In 2007, Clover informed the council

and DWP that she'd had a child and moved house.

They continued to pay her child benefit, child tax credit and income support.

By this time, Enfield council had been paying her housing benefit and council tax benefit for six years,

but following the tip off from the DVLA, the authorities now suspected

that Clover Jameson might be using a completely false identity.

The referral from the DWP alleged that Clover Jameson was

actually Laura Lee Jones,

and by submitting false identity documents she was committing

offences of making false statements on her claims to benefits.

Investigators had to find out for certain who this woman really was

and the best way to do that was to go and talk to her face to face.

Time for a visit to Clover's home in Edmonton.

Someone else lives at the property today, but in 2010 Clover was

claiming it was her home even though it didn't look inhabited.

When we arrived here, we found that the letter box was full up

with junk mail and letters addressed to other persons.

We knocked on the door but there wasn't any answer.

So after a few minutes we made some notes, left the property

and returned to the office.

Investigators had their suspicions that no-on was actually

living at the house on Balham Road, but they needed to establish

for certain whether or not Clover Jameson was resident

as she claimed on her housing benefit application.

What did the DWP do?

We agreed to carry out a joint surveillance operation,

and that would mean that I would go to visit the property and establish residency with Clover Jameson.

This time they wanted to be sure Clover Jameson would

actually be home. Investigators clearly needed some bait

if they were going to land their prize catch, so they wrote to

Clover telling her she was required to be at home for a meeting

with Council officers to discuss her benefit entitlement.

Every bit of evidence was crucial to this investigation,

so teams from both Enfield Council

and the DWP carried out a full surveillance operation.

On the day, the DWP officers arrived at the property,

and set up their surveillance from there.

Myself and my colleague called at the property and were

let into the building by somebody pertaining to be Ms Clover Jameson.

It looked like Clover took the bait. When her benefits were at risk,

she apparently thought it best to be at home.

Investigators asked Clover for ID,

but she wasn't able to offer anything with her picture on it.

We asked Ms Jameson if she had nay photographic identification,

and she said she did not.

She said they had been in the glove compartment of her car

and unfortunately the car had been impounded by the police

following an incident, and was subsequently destroyed

because she could not afford the release fee.

Therefore she did not have any photographic identification.

My passport has been crushed along with my car?

Talk about far-fetched!

As far as excuses go, that one is way up there with the one I use to

use at school about the dog eating my homework and no-one believed me.

The investigators were also not taken in by Clover's imaginative excuse.

I did not believe what she was telling me was the truth,

I believe she had the documents

and she just made the story up to put us off the trail.

But now the investigators had the elusive Clover Jameson

in their sights they were not going to lose track of her.

I responded back to my DWP colleagues who then took up

the surveillance operation and viewed the property,

and watched her leaving the property

and followed her on her journey throughout the day.

So where was Clover Jameson going?

The officers then watched her travel on a train towards

Tottenham High Road, where they followed her,

and continued to survey her for several hours whilst

she visited betting shops, a pub and a cafe in Tottenham.

They then observed her taking a taxi to Walthamstow.

They followed and she arrived at the property,

she entered the building with her own key.

Clover Jameson claims to be living in Edmonton

but she seems to be equally at home at another property in Walthamstow.

Investigators now had to find out whose house this was

and who was really living there.

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

the people we call our saints, those who are in genuine need of help but

are too proud and do not know how to claim what it rightfully theirs.

And the people who point them in the right direction.

Where money is tight, bringing up a large family can be

a constant struggle for even the most patient of parents.

You name it, kids need it, clothes, trainers, mobile phones,

but when your children's schooling is suffering because of the lack

of a computer, that's when you know you've got to do something about it.

Rachel Driscoll is a stay-at-home mum to three children.

She was forced to give up her job as a relief pub manager when she had

her son, Joseph, 15 years ago as the hours were too long.

Now her partner, Chris, is the family's sole breadwinner

and they are really struggling to keep their heads above water.

I look after a big private estate and there's 80 houses on there.

I basically do all the grounds maintenance

and then some communal cleaning and any odd jobs that need doing.

Every day is five o'clock in the morning until six o'clock,

that's Saturday and Sunday as well as the week.

And, as I say, call-outs, which could take an hour, two hours,

and that's four or five times a week I normally get called out.

Rachel's had to do everything at home.

She has to do all the dinners, get the kids from school.

I never really see much of the kids apart from half an hour before bed,

and that's if I'm lucky.

As hard as he works, Chris still learns a very low income,

it's topped up by the state with working tax credits

and the family also receive child benefit,

but they still find it hard to get by,

especially as they need to run a car so Chris can take his tools to work.

This flat is, what, local authority?

-Yes.

-OK, you live here, Chris is out working all the hours under the sun.

-Yeah.

-You've got your hands full.

What's money like at the end of the month?

Very hard, I mean, we do struggle.

Rachel has managed to stay positive despite constantly fighting

to stay financially afloat. But as the years went by,

the demands on the family income got greater.

And it wasn't just toys and trainers that Rachel's children wanted.

What sort of things were your children saying,

"Mum, we need this," and it was affecting their schooling, give me an idea.

I'd say with their homework because Joseph often had to do

different researches and things,

that you could only really do on the internet.

And certain websites, the school would say you need to go onto this

site and look it up, and then you'll find the answer.

So with things like that I'd say definitely Joseph did fall behind.

Rachel was desperate for Joseph's schoolwork not to suffer

just because they couldn't afford a computer.

Every day Joseph came in from school I dreaded it

because I knew it would be more homework, more internet,

and normally it had to be in either the next day or in two days' time.

So we had no time to waste so we'd either have to walk down

to our local library, which is about half an hour walk,

with the girls in tow and quite often

they didn't have a computer available

because there is only a few there.

So then we'd have to try and walk to a friend's house who

I know is local to use her computer, but is she wasn't available

then it would be about an hour's bus ride to my parents' house

for poor Joseph just to get his homework done,

to be on time and not get in trouble at school.

Rachel's mum, Carol, had a computer and access to internet

but it just wasn't practical to make the two hour round trip to

her house every night.

Quite a long way from each other, If Rachel come on the bus,

that would be even more stressful for her, having to bring three children on the bus.

Joseph probably not wanting to be there anyway but having to be

because he's got to do his homework.

But in spite of all the travelling they were doing to ensure Joseph

could get his homework done, it didn't stop him falling behind at school.

Do you think your schooling suffered?

It did, yeah, cos I mean, I got homework set for a certain day,

say the next day, and I didn't have...

cos you get time set on the computers at the library,

I wouldn't have enough time to finish my homework

so I'd be missing out and my grades would be going down

so I wouldn't be able to learn as much as everyone else.

Rachel went to talk to Joseph's school and they let her rent

a small notebook computer for a few weeks.

It was a temporary solution but Rachel got chatting

to a neighbour one day who gave her some great advice.

I went to the toddler group

and the lady that ran it suggested that there's lots of different

charities that can help people like yourselves in your situation

to get some money just to help towards a computer.

It sounded like the news Rachel had been waiting months for.

I was quite excited by that

because I'm the sort of positive person, I went straight home

and decided, right, I'm going to have a look and see what I can find.

Ironically, it was by coming home to use the notebook computer

she'd managed to rent from Joseph's school that Rachel found out

about an organisation that might be able to help her to buy her own one.

I went home and I Googled, charities to help with money for a computer,

so when I saw few different things come up one stood out to me.

The Turn2us website offers a benefits check and grant search

where you can find out if you might be entitled

to some of the £19 billion worth of money that goes unclaimed

by needy families every year,

or you can call their helpline, which is just what Rachel did.

The lady said to me, after taking a few details,

is your children disabled,

is there any things like that in your house and I said no.

Then she said, "I'm really sorry, but there isn't anything that

"seems to be available but have you ever had a benefit check?"

Although there are no special grants available to help Rachel

with money to buy a computer, she was happy to take up the offer of a benefits check.

Good morning, Turn2us, Emma speaking.

We had to explain to the lady on the phone, Turn2us, that

we lived in a council flat and we had to pay the rent,

and how much it was and the council tax and how much that was,

and what Chris' income was. There was a few other questions.

When the lady decided that she had all the right answers,

she typed it all in onto her computer and come back to us and said to us,

"Did you know that you were actually entitled to housing benefit and council tax benefit?"

And I said, "No, I didn't."

Rachel was thrilled to hear that she was going to have a bit more money coming in.

Although the benefit system can be tricky to navigate,

charities know just how crucial it is that people are helped

to find out exactly what they're entitled to claim.

Council tax benefit and housing benefit will vary from council to council,

but it's enough that it can increase someone's standard of living.

For some families, it might mean the difference between two square meals and three square meals a day,

so it's important that people claim everything they're entitled to.

Although Turn2us couldn't help Rachel with money for a computer,

by contacting them, she still ended up much better off each month

and the family got their computer in the end,

as Rachel's mum upgraded her laptop and gave the old one to Joseph.

Now we're even luckier. We get help with our rent and council tax

and we're bonus one computer from my parents.

Now life for the Driscoll family has completely transformed.

You've finally got your PC, you've got your money,

so there's a lot less stress there. What about Joseph's schoolwork?

That's improved loads, because he can come home and he takes his bag off,

gets on his computer and gets on with his homework.

So he's just as good as all the rest of the kids now.

Thanks to the extra money they have each month,

the Driscoll family can also afford to pay for an internet connection.

How's the computer situation at home?

It's good, it's really helpful now.

I mean, all my homework's getting done on time,

I'm catching up with my work and all my grades have got a lot better now.

Until she contacted Turn2us, Rachel had no idea

she was entitled to benefits she wasn't claiming.

We know there are many people in Rachel's situation, she is not untypical,

so people are not aware of the benefits that they are entitled to claim.

In fact, the Government's own statistics tell us that

there are £6.4 billion in Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit

that goes unclaimed every year.

But Rachel is now claiming what's rightfully hers

and it's making a big difference to her family's life.

We don't owe any money to neighbours or friends or family

because we have that £10 that we need for the gas or electric.

We're happy, we get by now.

-Give a message to Turn2us, what would it be?

-Thank you.

Thank you ever so much for being kind, for being helpful

and not looking down upon people like myself that ring up to ask for help

and carry on the good work.

Back now to the scroungers and a curious case of identity fraud.

Clover Jameson from Edmonton in North London is under suspicion

of falsely claiming housing and council tax benefit

as well as child tax credit and child benefit.

She's also in possession of a fake UK passport and that's not all.

Investigators suspect that Clover Jameson might not be her real identity,

but that this woman is really a Jamaican national by the name of Laura Lee Jones.

Having carried out some initial surveillance,

they have reason to believe she is not resident at a flat she's claiming Housing Benefit for.

Her actions and her responses to questions

on the day of the surveillance operation leads me to believe that

she wasn't actually living at the property in Edmonton.

One thing investigators do know for sure is that

their prime suspect has a child.

Tell me about what the DWP found out about Clover Jameson's son.

They found that she had registered him in Enfield

using her name, Clover Jameson, as mother.

OK, and claiming benefits for him.

Correct. On the basis of that birth certificate, she was able to claim child benefit and child tax credits.

-And what else did you find out?

-They also provided us with a copy of the birth certificate

that the child's father had registered him in Waltham Forest Council

citing the name of the mother as a Laura Lee Jones.

In that case, he was able to claim child benefit and child tax credits for the child as well.

-So they're both at it?

-They were.

His was a legitimate claim and hers was not.

So the picture was coming together.

Clover Jameson claimed to be the single parent to her son

and that they lived together in north London.

But the same child also apparently had a completely different mother

called Laura Lee Jones and a father who registered the birth

for a second time in a different part of London

and who was also claiming child benefit.

It was pretty damning evidence.

There was now enough information to justify carrying out a raid

on the property in Walthamstow that surveillance officers had already

seen Clover Jameson letting herself in to.

When you were ready to pounce, what happened next?

Once we'd gathered all the evidence that we needed,

myself on behalf of the London Borough of Enfield,

my colleagues from Waltham Forest Council

and the Metropolitan Police UK Border Agency

and the Department for Works and Pensions

carried out a raid on the property in Walthamstow.

Wow. That's quite a line-up. The investigators already knew

who the male resident at the property was

but was Clover Jameson also in residence?

We had surveyed Clover Jameson leaving the property in the morning

and taking her son to a local school. She then returned to the flat,

so we knew that she was actually in the property at the time.

Clover was a sitting duck

and investigators seized their opportunity.

On entering the property, the woman who identified herself

as Laura Lee Jones I recognised to be the same person that I had seen

as the Balham Road address and who had identified herself as Clover Jameson.

Gotcha! One woman, two names.

Clover Jameson and Laura Lee Jones were one and the same person.

A search of the property also revealed documentary proof

that Clover and Laura shared one identity.

We found a number of documents.

We found two provisional Jamaican driving licences,

one in the name of Clover Jameson and one in the name of Laura Lee Jones.

-Did they have the same picture?

-They did.

-Right.

-Bang to rights at that point, really, aren't you?

-Pretty much.

Investigators now had enough evidence to arrest Laura Lee Jones.

She was interviewed under caution.

Although initially replying, "No comment," to all of my questions,

she did eventually agree that she made false representations

on her claims to benefit to the London Borough of Enfield,

and that she had falsely claimed in the name of Clover Jameson.

Even though she had no right to reside in the UK,

over a period of seven years, Laura Lee Jones had claimed benefits

using the false identity of Clover Jameson and a fake British passport.

She had claimed child benefit, child tax credit

and income support as a single parent using the address in Edmonton,

even though she was living with her partner and the father of her child in Walthamstow.

In total, she claimed over £40,000 worth of housing benefits

she wasn't entitled to and almost £3,500 worth of council tax benefits

from Enfield Council.

To be honest, I was very surprised at the audacity of this woman.

She created a false identity for herself and she kept it up

in order to claim benefits and take advantage of the system.

She knew that what she was doing was wrong and she knew that she was not

entitled to claim any benefits in this country at all.

Laura Lee Jones appeared at Wood Green Crown Court in June 2011,

where she was charged with eight counts of fraud,

including making false representations, obtaining money transfers by deception

and being knowingly involved in fraudulent activity.

She pleaded guilty.

In total, Laura Lee Jones defrauded the benefit system

of £81,978.95

and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

At the end of her sentence, she will be deported back to Jamaica.

Laura Lee Jones clearly planned this offence.

She came into the country illegally, she purchased a false UK passport

and she used a false name. When she made a claim for benefit,

she filled in the claim forms and provided false information.

She signed declarations as the end of those claim forms to say

the information was true and correct. Clearly it was not.

Laura Lee Jones thought she had beaten the system

and played us all for over 80 grand,

but it doesn't matter how clever cheats think they are,

sooner or later, they're going to get caught.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd