Episode 1 Saints and Scroungers

In this country, the money we pay in taxes goes to provide

essential services that we rely on every single day.

It's a safety net to help, when things go wrong.'

We had got ourselves into this big dark hole.

But there are some people who see that money

as something they deserve, even when they don't.

There's a sustained and calculated fraud.

And those trying to cheat the system

tend to get their comeuppance.

They could potentially face prison, as well.

This is the world of Saints And Scroungers.

Yes, this is Saints And Scroungers.

We expose people who think they can make a fast buck

stealing public money from you and me, the taxpayer.

We also share the stories

of society's deserving unsung heroes and heroines.

The saints get the recognition they deserve

and, for the fraudsters, well, it's a kind of payback.

Coming up on today's show...

An NHS healthcare assistant with multiple identities

divides her time between hospital work,

and claiming at her local Jobcentre.

We found a number of prescription drugs scattered around the address.

And the desperate mum of an autistic teenager

seeks help from social services, to help him fly the nest.

It was the darkest, darkest time of my life...for me,

um, because, I just thought, "What are we going to do?"

The National Health Service. What a treasure.

Funded by you and me, the British taxpayer,

it employs 1.4 million people.

To pull the wool over the eyes

of such an amazingly large organisation,

you really would have to be something else.

Meet Desree, a mother of two

who was employed as a healthcare assistant at an NHS Hospital.

After nine years of service,

she seemed hard working and dedicated to the job.

She was tasked with caring for patients and assisting

ward nurses within a number of hospitals

to care for elderly patients.

During this time she would've had access to patient records,

and to patient medication.

But insider checks revealed this nurse

wasn't everything she'd seemed.

I've come to see Bob Gallacher from The Department for Work and Pensions

to find out how their systems alerted him

'to something dodgy, early in 2012.'

'Bob, tell me about'

the General Matching Service and what that does for you.

The General Matching Service is a process where the department

runs databases against both its own systems and other databases.

It's basically done on a risk-profiling basis,

where we gather intelligence and information of known areas

where there is potential fraud.

It's a very tight legislation process,

so it's something that has to go through quite a lot of

consideration before we actually run a General Matching Service match.

'The DWP can obtain'

permission to access employer databases,

but they only ever do this when intelligence suggests

there could be a fraud taking place.

In this case, what did it throw up for you?

The department ran a data-matching exercise

through NHS employee data and, in this particular case,

it threw up a discrepancy for a person known as Desree Anderson.

And Desree Anderson appeared to be claiming both income support

and also working for the National Health Service.

Their checks suggested specifically

that this person was working at Homerton Hospital in London.

Definitely something worth delving into a bit further.

So, we've got this character,

she's working and claiming benefit at the same time.

What's the next step?

We actually approached the hospital, to obtain details

of the person that was actually employed by them.

The man for the job was Colin Edwards,

a senior fraud investigator, working for the NHS.

He was supplied with a name, Desree Anderson,

a date of birth and a National Insurance number.

Following receipt of the information

from The Department for Work and Pensions,

I set about making enquiries with London hospitals.

This is when I found a person by the name of Desree Ann Marie Sesay

with the same date of birth of that I had been provided with.

So this Desree Anderson had the same date of birth

as someone called Desree Sesay.

Had this person created another name,

in order to work for Homerton Hospital, as a healthcare assistant

AND to be able to claim income support at the same time?

We are faced with two people and you are trying to demonstrate

-that they're actually the same person?

-Correct.

However, we looked at the National Insurance number that Desree Sesay

was using, whilst working as a nursing assistant.

But that National Insurance number actually defaulted

to a 16-year-old male.

So there were things clearly that we needed to follow up and investigate.

That's very interesting.

That's why we had suspicions, from our point of view.

That's fishier than fishy.

At this stage, you've got an employee working,

you've got someone claiming benefit and you've got a 16-year-old boy,

miles away, who seems to be giving his National Insurance number?

-Or?

-Or without his knowledge. We don't know.

We don't know whether she's acquired it

or purchased it through ill-gotten means.

So, the investigation was now dealing with two names.

Bob needed to do further cross checks

on this second name, Desree Sesay,

this time looking at associated bank accounts, to check the wages

being paid in by Homerton Hospital.

We were able to see that there had been deposits made

into the same account, from St Thomas's Hospital in London.

So in effect, she was working for the NHS, doing two jobs,

and also claiming income support.

When we checked the identity that she was using in St Thomas Hospital,

the National Insurance number that she provided them

defaulted to a male living in Cirencester.

So the plot was starting to really thicken at this point.

-Hold on, right. So, she's working in two hospitals...

-Two hospitals.

..she's claiming benefits...

-She's using two National Insurance numbers, in each hospital.

-Right.

And she's also, it would appear, at this stage,

-claiming income support and housing benefit, as well.

-Wow.

She's working and claiming benefits,

-but she's...even doubling up her workload, as well.

-Correct.

And this simultaneous investigation

had stepped up a gear at the hospital, too.

Once I had gathered information at one London hospital,

I was in a position to make enquiries with other London hospitals.

One such enquiry established that Desree Sesay

had worked under the name of Fanta Sesay at another London hospital,

on a temporary basis.

With three name variations to cross check,

the branches of the investigation were growing.

Back at The Department for Work and Pensions,

a check on the address Desree Sesay had provided

to Homerton Hospital has thrown up yet ANOTHER name.

We took the details we obtained from the National Health Service

and fed them into our own database

and they threw up a match with a Fanta Fofana,

who was claiming income support for herself,

her husband and two dependent children

And, in addition,

she was also receiving housing benefit from the address.

So, Colin and Bob were now dealing with four names -

Desree Anderson, Desree Sesay, Fanta Sesay and Fanta Fofana.

All had some linking information,

and if, as they suspected, this was actually one person

both working and claiming benefit,

they would need to try to put a face to all these names.

I asked for any information, or any documentation, to show

a picture of this particular person.

I was able to find and secure a copy of an identity pass,

which I was able to match with the information that had been provided,

in the form of a passport, from The Department for Work and Pensions.

So, the woman of many names had the same face.

It was all starting to come together nicely.

But this hospital drama was about to get even more sinister.

During a search of the property,

we found a number of prescription drugs scattered around the address.

These prescription drugs consisted of tramadol, diazepam -

all of which have a market value on the streets,

and cause me, certainly, from the NHS perspective,

a concern that they were being obtained illegally.

Let's bid farewell to the fraudsters

and hello to the people we call our saints,

those in our society that help others desperately in need,

to claim what they rightfully can.

As parents, we try and give our kids what they need and, as they grow up,

we try and adapt and change, so we can give them what they need.

But what happens if your child has a disability

and, no matter how hard you try,

you can't give them the environment they require?

What happens then?

Mother-of-five Jo faced this exact problem when, at age 19,

her severely autistic son James,

left the comfort of his special needs secondary school,

and faced the transition to college.

'We had to talk to him about the next stage, preparing him

'for leaving school and potentially getting into a special college.'

James sensed that life as he knew it wouldn't be the same much longer,

and his teenage hormonal changes didn't help much.

'James' behaviour began to deteriorate,

'in terms of him becoming

'more difficult and more challenging and very, very unsettled.

'He found it increasingly difficult to make sense of his environment'

and when we explained to James he'd be going to college,

what James didn't understand was that he was not going to college yet.

Jo managed to find James a local special-needs college,

who offered him a place.

Social services also agreed he could have an escorted bus service

there and back home again, so things were looking up.

But, before he got to college, there was one other thing to content with.

Every parent's worst nightmare... The summer holidays.

He didn't know if he was going to school,

he didn't know if he was going to college. He was beyond unsettled.

He became hugely disruptive at home.

Even Jo's friends noticed just how bad things had become with James.

He wasn't that seven-year-old boy where you could just lift up

and whip away and say, "No, that's not appropriate"

and remove him from the situation.

He was a strapping young man and Jo's a little thing.

I just think, physically, it became more exhausting, but also mentally,

you're absolutely exhausted and you have been doing this for years.

He could just push me out of the way and, more or less, knock me over,

if he wanted to. I was desperately anxious.

Where was it all going to end?

And that desperate feeling of thinking, "I can't go on,"

was actually quite real, at the time. It was very real.

I just thought, "I don't think I can do this any more.

"I don't think I've got the mental capacity to do it any more."

Jo and James struggled through the summer holidays,

with Jo also running a home and looking after the other children

and it was a huge relief when it was time

for James to start his new college.

But the feeling wasn't to last.

It became apparent very quickly

that James was struggling with the whole thing.

The bus driver complained about his behaviour -

leaping up and down on the bus - the escort couldn't manage him.

In college, they said he was very unsettled.

He would obsess over the college prospectus and refuse to put it down

and then he would hold on to it all day and not engage in anything else.

He'd find lunchtimes noisy.

Before long, he was back at home, 24/7,

and even medication prescribed to calm him wasn't working.

It was the darkest, darkest time of my life, for me,

because I just thought, "What are we going to do?"

And I was begging social services to help me,

to the point where I said,

"I feel he needs to live in an environment

"where he can have his needs met fully, 24/7."

At Jo's darkest moment, social services did help.

They agreed that James might be eligible for an alternative

living arrangement more suitable to his needs and paid for by the state.

And the type of funding she received gave her more freedom

to choose the type of place he might live.

I was actually told that there was a potential vacancy

and that I ought to go and have a look.

And I made the call and I went and had a look and I knew that

I had found the place I wanted James to live.

The vacancy was at a shared house, run by an organisation called UBU,

who provide unique personalised living support

to adults with learning disabilities.

And the house wasn't far from where the family currently lived.

The service itself is quite capable of

supporting any individual with a learning disability

or a particular autistic spectrum disorder.

Jo was in a very bad way.

When I spoke to her the first time I met her,

I could see straight away that she had major concerns,

not only for the future of James,

but was she putting her son in the right capable hands,

to enable him to be more independent?

James would go to the house every day and I would accompany James on

the first few visits and I would go out and do things with James and the

support staff, so that they could get to know James in a more natural way.

And the technique worked wonders.

James was able to break down those barriers and prove to himself,

his family and everyone, really, that he was able to

maintain a permanent residential place.

Should I wind it up for James?

For all of us, it was a huge achievement.

For James, as well, it was a huge achievement.

But the relief and the weight lifted off his mum was just so evident.

So with Social Services funding,

not only is James able to live independently, but his quality

of life has improved dramatically, as well.

James now, for example, is an avid horse rider.

He attends horse riding once a week and he is a natural John Wayne.

You should see him on a horse.

And James' disability living allowance

has also helped him have this kind of active lifestyle.

With the benefits that James receives, he is able to explore

alternative opportunities. For example, in the past,

he has done a streetwise course, which enables James to be more aware

of the dangers of road safety.

A drama class, where James is able to express himself to no end

and I might add that he is one of his teacher's

favourites in the class, because of his enthusiasm

and because of the effort that he puts into the drama.

James is so happy and loves the environment so much, to the point

where he doesn't need me in his life any more and I do find that hard.

But at the same time, it is a huge source of comfort for me to know

and understand how content James is, how happy he is and he feels so safe.

And when you have got special needs,

feeling safe is the critical thing, above everything else.

So, James was settled and happy

but his enabler Alex wasn't about to stop there.

An opportunity came to my attention,

as a leaflet distributor round the local area.

So I seized upon the opportunity, spoke to the relevant people and

they were more than happy to take on James, who now has an active round.

With a new independent home, a busy social calendar and a job,

it's clear that the team have worked hard

to get James where he is now.

And it was all down to one person, as far as Jo's concerned.

Alex has been absolutely fantastic.

I don't know where I would have been without him.

And he listened where people haven't listened.

He said, "What do I have to do to make James settle

"and become the person he used to be?"

We decided then that he could come off the medication.

He doesn't have that any more and what Alex has done is he has actually

given ME my life back,

but given James this life that he loves now.

You know, it's fantastic.

It's just an achievement in my life that I'm very proud of,

for James working towards that overall goal of him

finding independent residential living.

Nobody will love your child like you do. Ever.

But if you know that...

..he is being cared for and nurtured

and happy, then what more is there?

But now, back to the shady world of the scrounger.

Early in 2012, the Department for Work and Pensions

grew suspicious that one woman Desree Anderson had, since 2003,

been claiming income support and housing benefits.

And not only that, she was working for two NHS hospitals

by using many different names.

We found out that, during that period, she had actually been

earning between 1,700 and £2,000 per month, as a nursing assistant.

So you have got somebody with the wrong name, but clues

linking them to someone who is claiming benefit and that person

is earning proper money, which means they shouldn't have any benefit.

Correct.

Photographic evidence, in the form of a passport

and work ID badge, supported the suspicion that it was, in fact,

one person, with multiple identities.

But Home Office information about one of the aliases - Fanta Fofana -

really started to clear things up.

By this stage, there's several organisations involved.

UKBA, the Passport Service, we're working with the NHS investigator

and we're also working with local authority investigators, as well.

So we've got quite a team working on the case, at this point

in the investigation.

There's lots of you, but are you getting

a sense of the scale of what this woman is trying to achieve?

We approached the Home Office and the Home Office were able to give us

details of the history relating to this lady, Fanta Fofana.

And we were informed that she had entered the country

back in 1994, from Sierra Leone, and she had applied for asylum.

That application was actually turned down.

Fanta's application was rejected because it contained

inaccuracies, so she married a British citizen,

allowing her to stay in the country,

seemingly so she could work and claim benefits.

But the team needed concrete proof.

It was time for a stakeout.

We undertook some surveillance on her leaving work at Homerton Hospital.

That surveillance led us back to the address

that she was living at in London and giving to us

as the address from which she was claiming

income support and housing benefits.

The next morning we followed her again,

driving a car to go into work and she completed a shift, as normal,

but, interestingly enough,

the following week, she had been called in

to Plaistow Jobcentre in London

and again, we followed her

and when she attended the interview at the Jobcentre,

she did so in the name of Fanta Fofana.

So the stakeout was evidence that a woman by the name of Fanta Fofana

was sponging off the system, by signing on at her local

Jobcentre and also working for two hospitals

using different names.

The teams now had what they needed to take Fanta to court

and it was time for the police, the DWP and the NHS fraud team

to stop this woman dead in her tracks.

On the 29th of March,

I met with the Department for Work and Pensions investigators

and the police at Newham Police Station,

at around 4.30 in the morning,

We positioned ourselves with a view of the address.

As soon as Fanta Fofana left the house for work,

they closed in.

We made our way to ensure that exits were blocked

and that she had no way of leaving the street where she lived.

We arrested her outside the property,

the police arresting her and the Department for Work and Pensions

introducing themselves and me.

She was being arrested

for allegations of fraud

against the NHS and the Department for Work and Pensions.

She had been in the UK for a period of nine years,

working within the NHS and claiming benefits.

And it certainly appeared that she

realised that it had, in fact, caught up with her.

So for Fanta, the fantasy was finally over

and I'm about to find out exactly what the fraud teams discovered

when they searched her house.

There were no signs of any children in the household so, in effect,

she was claiming benefit stating that she had two children and a husband.

And when we arrested her, there was no visible evidence or signs that

there were any children or a husband living with her.

How did she provide documentation

that she would have needed to get the benefits for them?

What she did tell us was that her children were in Africa,

so she would have provided valid birth certificates for those

children, but they weren't actually living here with her.

It appeared Fanta may have been working in the UK

to send money back home to Sierra Leone,

particularly given the other items that were also found at the house.

We found a number of prescription drugs scattered around the address.

The prescriptions had, in fact, bean dispensed in patient names

which we later verified as patients of these London hospitals.

Prescription drugs and multiple identities.

But Fanta Fofana still thought she could get away with a huge crime.

Tell me, what was it like at the interview stage?

She just confirmed that her original, and maiden name,

was Fanta Fofana

and that she got married and her married name was Fanta Sesay.

And that's all she would say?

The rest of the interview, she gave no comment.

That day, Fanta Fofana was suspended from work, with immediate effect,

but over the nine years spent in the UK, she'd earned

over £240,000 in wages from the NHS,

received over £21,000 in income support,

almost £39,000 in tax credits

and £121,000 in housing and council tax benefit from Newham Council.

Totalling just over £421,000.

Over 180K of which were benefits she wasn't entitled to.

And then, when you got to court, what was her reaction?

The judge sentenced her to 28 months' imprisonment.

But he also directed that

she is to be deported, once she has completed her sentence.

-So she is going back to Sierra Leone?

-Back to Sierra Leone.

-It's an extraordinary case.

-Yeah.

The sums of money involved and the lengths to which she has gone,

-I'm hoping it's not typical.

-No. I think we have to say that

the vast majority of people that claim benefit from the Department

are genuine and honest and,

fortunately for us, the people who manipulate the system,

who commit fraud, are very much in a minority.

In terms of the money that she has taken,

is any of it traceable or is it all gone?

We believe it has all gone.

With NHS systems now updated,

they say there's no chance of anyone being able to work for them

by presenting false ID documents.

Within the NHS,

there has been a drastic change with the way persons are employed

and the checks that are undertaken, with regards to individuals'

identities, to make sure that we do identify these problems

and we do weed out those that are seeking to exploit the NHS.

Hard work, dedication and a comprehensive data-matching system

meant that, finally, this chameleon was stopped in her tracks.

Fanta Fofana will only be getting one more thing

out of the British taxpayer - and that is a flight home

to Sierra Leone, as soon as she finishes her sentence.