0:00:02 > 0:00:04One of the things that makes this country great is that whenever
0:00:04 > 0:00:07we find someone in GENUINE need, we help them out.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11This money provides support to transform people's lives.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13I was in total turmoil.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15But then whenever there is cash on offer,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18you will always find someone who wants to steal it.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20It was a sustained and calculated fraud.
0:00:20 > 0:00:23Those greedy few tend to be brought to justice.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26They could potentially face prison as well.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30This is a world of Saints & Scroungers.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Saints & Scroungers exposes the righteous
0:00:55 > 0:00:58and the wrongdoers in Britain's welfare system.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00On one side, you have those in legitimate need
0:01:00 > 0:01:03and on the other, those who are just driven by greed.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06It is a scrap that is fought every day across the UK.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09Anti-fraud teams are on a mission to ensure cheats
0:01:09 > 0:01:11get their comeuppance and the saints are striving to help
0:01:11 > 0:01:15those who deserve support to claim what is rightfully theirs.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Coming up on today's show -
0:01:22 > 0:01:26a cash-hungry con with over 15 claims and counting...
0:01:26 > 0:01:29This is just pure greed and nothing else.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32..and, after almost two decades, there is a ray of light
0:01:32 > 0:01:36for one family who struggle to raise their kids against the odds.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Now we can look to the future,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40which is something we've never, ever thought of.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45I am Matt Allwright.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47There is only one of me.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50But without too much effort, I could be...
0:01:50 > 0:01:51Hey, hey.
0:01:54 > 0:01:55He's funny.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Then again, I could be...
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Your Italian friend.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06Italian. Italian? Yeah.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08You're wearing a sombrero.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14The point here is if you turn yourself into more than one person,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17you could claim more than one load of benefits.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Yeah, don't try that at home.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Whilst we're on the subject of benefits, that is
0:02:24 > 0:02:28what this fellow Emmanuel Ikem from Croydon applied for in 2007.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31It was housing benefit, to be precise.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35He was 21 at the time and had just moved out of Mum and Dad's place.
0:02:35 > 0:02:36Nothing wrong with that.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39It is nice to know that there's
0:02:39 > 0:02:41a bit of help for this churchgoing lad.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44After all, he was only trying to stand on his own two feet
0:02:44 > 0:02:47and, in the right hands, a little bit can go a long way.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Not everyone's intentions are the same, though,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54as Croydon Council were about to find out.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57Meet 30-year-old David Jones.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Like Emmanuel Ikem, he also needed support putting a roof
0:03:00 > 0:03:04over his head but Croydon Council had reason to believe
0:03:04 > 0:03:08he was on the take, falsely claiming benefits.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11I'm off to Croydon to meet the anti-fraud team's head honcho
0:03:11 > 0:03:13and boss man David Hogan to find out why.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Tell me about David Jones.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20What did you know about him?
0:03:20 > 0:03:24The claim for David Jones, everything seemed to check out.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28Then somebody else leaving the same address contacted the council
0:03:28 > 0:03:30and told us that this property was empty
0:03:30 > 0:03:32and there wasn't anyone living there.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35That is a shocking revelation.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39Suddenly, you have been paying rent on a property which,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42apparently, is uninhabitable. Is that right?
0:03:42 > 0:03:44That was the situation we found ourselves in, yes.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46OK, so what is the next step?
0:03:46 > 0:03:48We'll try and track down Mr Jones
0:03:48 > 0:03:51and the investigation really starts from there.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53So, the fraud team suspected that David Jones,
0:03:53 > 0:03:57a 30-year-old unemployed bloke, may be falsely claiming housing benefit,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01around 700 quid a month for an empty flat in Croydon.
0:04:01 > 0:04:02This doesn't sound good but,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05you know, it could just be a simple misunderstanding.
0:04:05 > 0:04:06Maybe he had gone on holiday
0:04:06 > 0:04:09or is very much into minimalist interior design.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11When the fraud team had Mr Jones on the phone asking
0:04:11 > 0:04:13why his payments had been stopped,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16it seemed like nothing more than a storm in a teacup.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Mr Jones sent in various documents,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22including utility bills for the address,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25correspondence from the estate agents,
0:04:25 > 0:04:27to try and convince us that the money
0:04:27 > 0:04:30shouldn't be suspended and it should still continue to be paid out.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34OK, so he provided all the paperwork you need in order
0:04:34 > 0:04:38to claim benefits, including that all-important tenancy agreement.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40That must mean he's legit, right?
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Croydon Council thought so and reinstated his payments,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45but not for long.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47Mr Jones must have been having a run of bad luck,
0:04:47 > 0:04:50cos a few months later the council had to stop
0:04:50 > 0:04:51his payments for a second time,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55when the letters they were sending him were coming straight back.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59'David Jones made contact with the council
0:04:59 > 0:05:01'and said they were still living there and
0:05:01 > 0:05:03'they were simply having a problem with their neighbour
0:05:03 > 0:05:07'who, out of malice, was returning mail.'
0:05:07 > 0:05:10The next notification we get from Mr Jones is him
0:05:10 > 0:05:12telling us that he's now moving.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15He's moving to another address within the Croydon area.
0:05:15 > 0:05:20And he's changing his landlords as a result of this move.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22A sensible plan, if your neighbour's sabotaging your post,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25but, of course, by this time, the investigators'
0:05:25 > 0:05:27antennae were twitching.
0:05:27 > 0:05:28The next claim from Mr Jones,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30'the investigators went to the address.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33'What they found was a property that was empty.'
0:05:35 > 0:05:39So, from the address, they phoned Mr Jones who told them
0:05:39 > 0:05:41'he was out shopping and couldn't meet them.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44'That made the investigator even more suspicious.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49'The investigator went from the property across to the
0:05:49 > 0:05:52'estate agents and spoke to them'
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and they confirmed they had no tenant in the name of David Jones.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59In fact, they were able to look at the documentation as relating
0:05:59 > 0:06:01to that tenancy and tell it was false.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Another empty flat, and this time with forged paperwork.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Alarm bells were now ringing from one end of Croydon to the other
0:06:08 > 0:06:09and back again.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12If it turns out David Jones was making claims to
0:06:12 > 0:06:14phoney addresses in order to bank in benefits,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18the investigators would be all over him like a rash.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21So, the next step was to thumb through council files to see
0:06:21 > 0:06:24if anyone else was claiming benefits from David Jones' empty flat.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27It's standard practice, really, in a case like this.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31And, lo and behold, it came up trumps.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33'She found the things that were common,'
0:06:33 > 0:06:37such as they all had the same mobile phone number,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40that the tenancy documents were broadly the same
0:06:40 > 0:06:42and, one crucial bit,
0:06:42 > 0:06:46they all seemed to claim that the only income they had, the money
0:06:46 > 0:06:50they lived off, was from charitable payments from friends and relatives.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Blimey. They found the landlord, letting agent
0:06:53 > 0:06:57and even mobile phone number was the same on seven other claims.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01On one hand, I mean, it could just be another coincidence.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04On the other hand, it's got the smell of large-scale fraud.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06As we started to identify more
0:07:06 > 0:07:10and more of the addresses that were being commonly used to make
0:07:10 > 0:07:13these claims, we set out on a whole series of visits then,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16to look at the properties for ourselves, to photograph them.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19I've got some of the images here.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Here's the front door at Zion Road.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25You'll see here the front garden.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28It was evident to the investigators immediately that these
0:07:28 > 0:07:30properties were not occupied.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Within weeks, the team had uncovered over half a dozen more
0:07:34 > 0:07:38housing benefit claimants, with almost identical paperwork
0:07:38 > 0:07:40to David Jones. Very odd.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44We then turned our attention to the tenancy documents that had
0:07:44 > 0:07:47been submitted in support of all of these claims.
0:07:47 > 0:07:48What was interesting here was
0:07:48 > 0:07:51when we did crosschecking with Land Registry records,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55we found that the owners of the property were completely fake.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58'Land Registry held details of the real owners
0:07:58 > 0:08:00'and they weren't the people on the paperwork.'
0:08:00 > 0:08:03So, the investigators had proof the addresses were being
0:08:03 > 0:08:05falsely used in claims that they now suspected could
0:08:05 > 0:08:08run into tens of thousands of pounds.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11What they needed was the low-down on the names written on the
0:08:11 > 0:08:13claim forms, but, after running them
0:08:13 > 0:08:17through every database at their disposal, they'd hit a brick wall.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20Determined not to let this case slip away,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23investigator Graham Clark had an idea.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26He sent the files to his friends at the National Fraud Identity Unit
0:08:26 > 0:08:28to have a gander.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33They had particular expertise on identifying documents,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36such as passports and birth certificates,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39so we went to them and showed them the birth certificates that had
0:08:39 > 0:08:42been submitted in support of those claims.
0:08:42 > 0:08:48They were able to tell us that they were forgeries.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Forged. That doesn't sound good.
0:08:51 > 0:08:52If the documents aren't real,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56could that mean that David Jones isn't real, either?
0:08:56 > 0:08:58Let's look at the facts.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Housing benefit claims coming from empty properties
0:09:02 > 0:09:06and claims coming from people who apparently didn't exist.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Something didn't add up
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and it was up to the fraud team at Croydon to figure it out.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17Luckily, they're good at adding up and they worked out now
0:09:17 > 0:09:20they had a benefit fraud involving multiple faked identities,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23but how do they work out who's behind it?
0:09:23 > 0:09:28We first suspected that it was one of the names on the other
0:09:28 > 0:09:32claims that was responsible for the fraud.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34'We then make checks with colleagues at
0:09:34 > 0:09:36'the Department for Work and Pensions,'
0:09:36 > 0:09:39looking, really, to verify the National Insurance numbers
0:09:39 > 0:09:42on these identities that are used.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45Interestingly, what we found was the only one that they were able
0:09:45 > 0:09:46to verify was Emmanuel Ikem.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Ikem... Hold on, Emmanuel Ikem!
0:09:49 > 0:09:51We've heard that name before.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Wasn't he the young churchgoer from Croydon who was given
0:09:53 > 0:09:57housing benefits when he moved out from Mum and Dad's?
0:09:57 > 0:09:59With his name the only one that checked out,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01it wasn't looking good for him.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05It was when we were checking out some of the tenancy agreements
0:10:05 > 0:10:10on the claims, we then found links between Ikem
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and some of the other identities.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18It seems our churchgoer might not be as saintly as we first thought.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22But as the case unravels, it starts to look like an unholy mess.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27I've been doing this job for 20-odd years
0:10:27 > 0:10:32and I've only come across similar cases maybe six or seven times.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Now, praise be, it's farewell to the fraudsters
0:10:38 > 0:10:42and hello to the people we call our saints, those in society that
0:10:42 > 0:10:46help others who are in genuine need, but are sometimes too proud
0:10:46 > 0:10:49or don't know how to claim what's rightfully theirs.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53Kids.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57First, they give you sleepless nights, then teenager mood swings
0:10:57 > 0:11:01and, to top it all, after all that, they go and leave you.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04But I suppose that's the way it should be.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08But imagine knowing your child would never grow up to have that
0:11:08 > 0:11:10kind of freedom and, in fact,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14would need help 24/7 for the rest of their life.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Paul and Carol from Stockton-on-Tees have worked tirelessly,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20bringing up their two children.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25One has Down's syndrome, but both also suffer from forms of autism.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28As you can imagine, juggling the pressures of work
0:11:28 > 0:11:30and home life would never be easy
0:11:30 > 0:11:32but eventually it all got too much.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35We had got ourselves into this big, dark hole
0:11:35 > 0:11:37and depression was kicking in with me.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44The family life they planned took a different turn with the birth
0:11:44 > 0:11:48of their first son, Matthew, who was diagnosed with Down's syndrome.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51A lot of our friends couldn't accept him
0:11:51 > 0:11:54and would cross the road when they seen us coming.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56It was understandably a very difficult time,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59but they managed to pick themselves up.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01Paul stayed home and looked after Matthew,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04while Carol went out to work.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07I could earn more than Paul if I went back to work,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09so then Paul became househusband.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Three years later, they had their second child, Ryan.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16With only one wage coming in and an extra mouth to feed,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19money was tight, but the family ploughed on
0:12:19 > 0:12:22and for years, just about made ends meet with the money Paul
0:12:22 > 0:12:26received for being Matthew's carer and a top up
0:12:26 > 0:12:29they got through a benefit scheme to help parents get back to work.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33We just cut down, cut back, things they couldn't do.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35And if the family didn't have enough to deal with,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38when Ryan was about nine, things got even tougher.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44Ryan then basically completed an assessment that said
0:12:44 > 0:12:45he's on the autistic spectrum.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52To be told you have another child
0:12:52 > 0:12:55with an additional need
0:12:55 > 0:12:57is devastating.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59You now know that Ryan is going to need extra support
0:12:59 > 0:13:01and he is going to need you to be there.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05There was a pressure of that, there was a pressure of I needed to
0:13:05 > 0:13:09be at home, but I was a breadwinner, so I needed to be at work, as well.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12And all that takes its toll over time.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16But the family was about to be dealt another blow.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18Due to some changes in the benefit system,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22some of the money that was being used to top up Carol's income,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25money that the family had come to rely upon, stopped.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28One of the answers was for Carol to work more hours,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33but all of her spare time was being taken up caring for her
0:13:33 > 0:13:35children and their growing needs.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39'There's been times where we've gone,'
0:13:39 > 0:13:40"Oh, my God, what the...?"
0:13:40 > 0:13:42you know, "What are we doing? We can't go on like this."
0:13:42 > 0:13:47For Carol, it was inevitable that things had to change.
0:13:47 > 0:13:48'My doctor suggested'
0:13:48 > 0:13:51that I either concentrate on work
0:13:51 > 0:13:53or I concentrate on my home life
0:13:53 > 0:13:55but I can't do both.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58'And that's the time when it was decided,
0:13:58 > 0:13:59'for mental health reasons,'
0:13:59 > 0:14:01'I had to give up work.'
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Giving up work was a hard decision, as they knew that,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08without Carol's income, they'd now struggle to make ends meet.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Carol and Paul had been through some really tough years
0:14:14 > 0:14:17and they'd spent so much of their time and energy looking after
0:14:17 > 0:14:20the boys, they'd forgotten that they needed looking after too.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24It's times like that you could really do with some help.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Carol was put in touch with the George Hardwick Foundation -
0:14:27 > 0:14:31a charity that offers help for those caring for young ones.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33I think a lot of people like Carol come to us
0:14:33 > 0:14:35for support in difficult times.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40In the past, many people would get into major financial difficulty -
0:14:40 > 0:14:42they'd run up debts that they couldn't pay,
0:14:42 > 0:14:45and they'd come to us when in crisis.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47Paul and Carol desperately needed someone to look at
0:14:47 > 0:14:50whether they were entitled to any additional benefits.
0:14:52 > 0:14:53Having a little more income
0:14:53 > 0:14:56would completely transform the quality of life
0:14:56 > 0:14:58for the whole family.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01And after a few weeks of making phone calls and form-filling,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03there was finally something to smile about.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07Our benefits advice workers helped her claim carer's allowance,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09which they were getting for Matthew,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and they didn't realise that they could actually, you know,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14because one was caring for Matthew full-time,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18the other could actually claim it for Ryan, as well.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23It meant the pressure was off and we were allowed to live a little.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28But for Carol, the support she needed wasn't just financial.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32If you're looking after a child, you're doing it 24/7,
0:15:32 > 0:15:37your world revolves around that, you don't have time for a social life, necessarily.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41Carol was put in touch with a support group where carers
0:15:41 > 0:15:43get together over a cuppa and talk through the stresses
0:15:43 > 0:15:46and strains of bringing up kids that need a lot of help.
0:15:46 > 0:15:52It was great just having somewhere to go that understood.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55I'd found an outlet, I wasn't getting depressed,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58I was coping better at home,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02which in turn meant the pressure was taken a little more off Paul.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07But it didn't stop there. The foundation has all sorts of
0:16:07 > 0:16:09facilities that Carol and the boys can use.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12From a relaxation centre with massage rooms,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15to an in-house cinema for afternoons out, something
0:16:15 > 0:16:17which for years had seemed almost impossible.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20I'm not saying it was easy, it still had its challenges,
0:16:20 > 0:16:25it still had its struggles, but we were out there and we were doing it.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27And previous to that, we hadn't been.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32The George Hardwick Foundation had worked wonders for Carol, Paul,
0:16:32 > 0:16:35and the boys, but just at the point when they were starting to
0:16:35 > 0:16:39get a grip on things, they were thrown another curve ball.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42The concerns for Carol, at this point in time, were that her son,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Matthew, is turning 19
0:16:45 > 0:16:48in February, and there's all sorts of changes
0:16:48 > 0:16:50coming through at that stage in his life.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52So, basically, with him approaching 19,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56the options are to make a choice. Does he claim benefits in his own
0:16:56 > 0:17:01right? Or do we continue in terms of the child benefit and child
0:17:01 > 0:17:03tax credits side of things, which you currently get for him?
0:17:03 > 0:17:05'Making the right decision will be crucial
0:17:05 > 0:17:09'if the family's going to continue to keep their heads above water.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12'But Carol's confident she's now in safe hands.'
0:17:12 > 0:17:16'I think that's the biggest thing, we're not hitting crisis points now.'
0:17:16 > 0:17:17If we know something's coming up,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20like a major change that's about to happen,
0:17:20 > 0:17:22we'll make an appointment and we'll get some more benefits advice.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Carol's life's been changed beyond recognition and knowing just
0:17:26 > 0:17:29how much she's been helped, she's wanted to give something back.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33She now heads up a support group called Stockton United For Change.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38If we can stop one family from hitting crisis point...
0:17:40 > 0:17:43..then, to me, that's what it is about.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Carol, Paul and the boys owe a lot to the foundation
0:17:46 > 0:17:50and thanks to them, they can now enjoy life as a family once again.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Now, we can look to the future,
0:17:52 > 0:17:54which is something we've never, ever thought of.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57'It's not just about getting benefits advice or counselling,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01'or going and having a massage and a therapy and a relaxation,'
0:18:01 > 0:18:03it's about the practicalities to get you through life
0:18:03 > 0:18:05and on the right course.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09With all the time and energy that Carol and Paul have
0:18:09 > 0:18:13put into their family, it's great to see a smile back on their faces.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16And hopefully, with all the help and support they're getting,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19from here on in, it's onwards and upwards.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26And now, back to the scroungers,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29where Croydon Council investigators believe they're hot on the heels
0:18:29 > 0:18:33of a large-scale housing benefit fraud that could be rinsing
0:18:33 > 0:18:35the public purse of tens of thousands of pounds.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39Tell me about your team and what you do.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43I've got a team of ten investigation staff.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Our job is to look at any allegation
0:18:45 > 0:18:48of fraud across the Borough of Croydon.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51We've got a whole variety of ways we do that, we have access
0:18:51 > 0:18:55to paper records, we've got technology that we use, as well.
0:18:55 > 0:18:56And they were going to need it,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59cos this was looking like no other ordinary case.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02They'd already uncovered claims from a number of hijacked identities
0:19:02 > 0:19:06linked to several empty and derelict flats.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09A lot of the claims came from St James's Road,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11which is right in the heart of the borough,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14but we noticed there were some as far north as Silverley Road,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17and all the way out in the south to Godstone Road.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20One of the names on their radar, Emmanuel Ikem,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23was the only benefits claimer they could verify
0:19:23 > 0:19:28had a genuine national insurance number and was based in Croydon.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30But after months of trawling boarded-up houses
0:19:30 > 0:19:34and sifting through council records, they'd hit a dead end.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36That was until a call came in from a local bank,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40who suspected one of their customers was doing something a bit dodgy.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44I know what you're thinking, but no, it wasn't Emmanuel Ikem.
0:19:45 > 0:19:51They were looking into accounts in the name of Jermaine Douglas
0:19:51 > 0:19:56and they noticed that there were a number of housing benefit
0:19:56 > 0:20:01payments going into three accounts and they were wanting clarification.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04The team had a new name in their sights, Jermaine Douglas,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07whoever he is. Here's the interesting bit,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10not only was he registered as living at the same address as some of the
0:20:10 > 0:20:14fake claimants, but he was getting their housing benefit payments.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21For each of those claims, he was getting as much as £160 a week
0:20:21 > 0:20:23going into each of those accounts.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27Maths isn't my strong point, but if they're getting 160 quid
0:20:27 > 0:20:31a claim, multiply that by ten or so claims, then that is...
0:20:31 > 0:20:34That's quite a lot. But it's just the tip of the iceberg.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38The team soon traced more of the fake claim payments to other
0:20:38 > 0:20:41accounts, this time in the name of Daniel Adelosoye.
0:20:41 > 0:20:42And that wasn't all.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45A number of the claims, they were asking for benefits
0:20:45 > 0:20:48to be paid into business accounts.
0:20:48 > 0:20:55When we made enquiries, we found that that account was in the name of Ikem.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58So it looks like Ikem, Douglas
0:20:58 > 0:21:02and Adelosoye were up to their necks in it, and even using business
0:21:02 > 0:21:05accounts to try and further disguise the fact that they were
0:21:05 > 0:21:09creaming benefits to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14With three names and three accounts, it was looking like a gang.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16That's what Graham Clark thought, anyway,
0:21:16 > 0:21:18until he saw their photographs.
0:21:18 > 0:21:24We did already obtain driving licences in the names of Ikem,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29and Jermaine Douglas. In our opinion, they were the same person.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32I mean, there is an uncanny resemblance,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36but they could be twins with different names. No.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39If the team's hunch was right and Ikem and Douglas were the same
0:21:39 > 0:21:44person, they'd be a step closer to unravelling this fraud.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46We needed a professional opinion.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49So we went back to the National Anti-Fraud Network.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53All the team could do now is wait anxiously for the outcome.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57They confirmed that they were the same person.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Now, this was a key moment
0:22:03 > 0:22:06because many of the payments of housing benefits had been
0:22:06 > 0:22:09sent to a bank account in the name of Jermaine Douglas.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14We now knew that Jermaine Douglas was Ikem, and Ikem was Douglas.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Quite simple, really.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Ikem told the authorities he was now called Jermaine Douglas then
0:22:19 > 0:22:22reapplied for a passport in that name.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Once you've got the passport, you can get a bank account,
0:22:25 > 0:22:30one with a different name to funnel false claimants' money through.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32But that wasn't all they found.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36We also knew that the documents that we held, that there was
0:22:36 > 0:22:40a driving licence in the name of Daniel Adelosoye that had
0:22:40 > 0:22:44the photograph of Emmanuel Ikem and Jermaine Douglas on it.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49So we knew we were dealing with one person at this stage, not a gang.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53So Ikem was posing as three different people, which would make
0:22:53 > 0:22:57him three times as hard to catch, I suppose. Well, in theory.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02So, you've got three separate identities for Emmanuel Ikem.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04Does it stop there? What happens next?
0:23:04 > 0:23:09This has been a very complex fraud. Over a number of years,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12but still quite a short period, set up so many identities
0:23:12 > 0:23:15and successfully used them to get into the benefit system.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19I've been investigating fraud for about 15 years,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23and this has been a very, very complex fraud to have committed.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26What we're doing now is we're starting to look down at how many
0:23:26 > 0:23:28times this identity has been used.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32After sifting through hundreds of documents,
0:23:32 > 0:23:34they finally pieced it all together.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37And it was much bigger than they ever imagined.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42We found out about, including his own name, he had in total
0:23:42 > 0:23:47made 17 different claims using 14 different identities.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52The housing benefit loss to the public purse has
0:23:52 > 0:23:55been in excess of £127,000.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Now, that's a substantial amount of money.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04You might be wondering what sort of family a benefits cheat comes from.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07Well, take Mrs Ikem. I think you'd like her.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11Honest, trustworthy, you know, the sort of person that would
0:24:11 > 0:24:14report someone to the council if she thought they were up to no good.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Hello?
0:24:16 > 0:24:20'We actually had a telephone call from Mrs Ikem'
0:24:20 > 0:24:25and she was concerned that there was mail arriving at her own
0:24:25 > 0:24:29address for somebody that she thought might be committing benefit fraud.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Now, as it turned out, this was one of the aliases,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37one of the false claims that her son was running.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40So, not only yet another crooked claim to add to the list,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43but he's now been dobbed in by his own mother.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45Surely, the game is up.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Mr Ikem was arrested on 1st June 2012,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55he attended interview under caution.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59At the interview under caution, he chose to read out
0:24:59 > 0:25:03a pre-prepared statement. Following the statement, he answered
0:25:03 > 0:25:05all of our questions as "No comment."
0:25:05 > 0:25:08He did, at the time, also proclaim that he'd committed no fraud.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10The team wasn't buying it.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14But when it wound up in court, would the judge?
0:25:14 > 0:25:19The defence made great play about the fact that he was a regular churchgoer
0:25:19 > 0:25:25in an attempt to portray him as somebody of good character.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28But, as far as we're concerned, that's totally irrelevant.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31This was a very high profile fraud,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35which involved a large degree of sophistication and planning.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38'And the goody two-shoes act wasn't fooling anyone.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41'He ended up pleading guilty to making 13 false housing'
0:25:41 > 0:25:46benefit claims, defrauding Croydon Council out of around £99,000.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50And for that, he got two years in the slammer.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Inevitably, it was going to come crashing down, wasn't it?
0:25:53 > 0:25:57- With so many identities? - I think, with so many identities,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00it always was going to come crashing down around him,
0:26:00 > 0:26:02purely because he'd made it
0:26:02 > 0:26:07so complex for himself to run or to continue to run this fraud.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10It's a great result, but there's still one mystery.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13He's never explained where he found those names
0:26:13 > 0:26:15and how he started using them.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23I've been doing this job for 20-odd years,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27and I've only come across similar cases maybe six or seven times.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34He'd have only put as much energy and enthusiasm into doing the right
0:26:34 > 0:26:38thing instead of the wrong thing, he could have been a formidable talent.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41This is just pure greed and nothing else.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49So the fraud team's work finally paid off.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52After sorting through numerous addresses and identities,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55Ikem is now living where he should be -
0:26:55 > 0:26:57at Her Majesty's pleasure.