Episode 10 Saints and Scroungers

One of the things that makes this country great is that whenever

we find someone in GENUINE need, we help them out.

This money provides support to transform people's lives.

I was in total turmoil.

But then whenever there is cash on offer,

you will always find someone who wants to steal it.

It was a sustained and calculated fraud.

Those greedy few tend to be brought to justice.

They could potentially face prison as well.

This is a world of Saints & Scroungers.

Saints & Scroungers exposes the righteous

and the wrongdoers in Britain's welfare system.

On one side, you have those in legitimate need

and on the other, those who are just driven by greed.

It is a scrap that is fought every day across the UK.

Anti-fraud teams are on a mission to ensure cheats

get their comeuppance and the saints are striving to help

those who deserve support to claim what is rightfully theirs.

Coming up on today's show -

a cash-hungry con with over 15 claims and counting...

This is just pure greed and nothing else.

..and, after almost two decades, there is a ray of light

for one family who struggle to raise their kids against the odds.

Now we can look to the future,

which is something we've never, ever thought of.

I am Matt Allwright.

There is only one of me.

But without too much effort, I could be...

Hey, hey.

He's funny.

Then again, I could be...

Your Italian friend.

Italian. Italian? Yeah.

You're wearing a sombrero.

The point here is if you turn yourself into more than one person,

you could claim more than one load of benefits.

Yeah, don't try that at home.

Whilst we're on the subject of benefits, that is

what this fellow Emmanuel Ikem from Croydon applied for in 2007.

It was housing benefit, to be precise.

He was 21 at the time and had just moved out of Mum and Dad's place.

Nothing wrong with that.

It is nice to know that there's

a bit of help for this churchgoing lad.

After all, he was only trying to stand on his own two feet

and, in the right hands, a little bit can go a long way.

Not everyone's intentions are the same, though,

as Croydon Council were about to find out.

Meet 30-year-old David Jones.

Like Emmanuel Ikem, he also needed support putting a roof

over his head but Croydon Council had reason to believe

he was on the take, falsely claiming benefits.

I'm off to Croydon to meet the anti-fraud team's head honcho

and boss man David Hogan to find out why.

Tell me about David Jones.

What did you know about him?

The claim for David Jones, everything seemed to check out.

Then somebody else leaving the same address contacted the council

and told us that this property was empty

and there wasn't anyone living there.

That is a shocking revelation.

Suddenly, you have been paying rent on a property which,

apparently, is uninhabitable. Is that right?

That was the situation we found ourselves in, yes.

OK, so what is the next step?

We'll try and track down Mr Jones

and the investigation really starts from there.

So, the fraud team suspected that David Jones,

a 30-year-old unemployed bloke, may be falsely claiming housing benefit,

around 700 quid a month for an empty flat in Croydon.

This doesn't sound good but,

you know, it could just be a simple misunderstanding.

Maybe he had gone on holiday

or is very much into minimalist interior design.

When the fraud team had Mr Jones on the phone asking

why his payments had been stopped,

it seemed like nothing more than a storm in a teacup.

Mr Jones sent in various documents,

including utility bills for the address,

correspondence from the estate agents,

to try and convince us that the money

shouldn't be suspended and it should still continue to be paid out.

OK, so he provided all the paperwork you need in order

to claim benefits, including that all-important tenancy agreement.

That must mean he's legit, right?

Croydon Council thought so and reinstated his payments,

but not for long.

Mr Jones must have been having a run of bad luck,

cos a few months later the council had to stop

his payments for a second time,

when the letters they were sending him were coming straight back.

'David Jones made contact with the council

'and said they were still living there and

'they were simply having a problem with their neighbour

'who, out of malice, was returning mail.'

The next notification we get from Mr Jones is him

telling us that he's now moving.

He's moving to another address within the Croydon area.

And he's changing his landlords as a result of this move.

A sensible plan, if your neighbour's sabotaging your post,

but, of course, by this time, the investigators'

antennae were twitching.

The next claim from Mr Jones,

'the investigators went to the address.

'What they found was a property that was empty.'

So, from the address, they phoned Mr Jones who told them

'he was out shopping and couldn't meet them.

'That made the investigator even more suspicious.

'The investigator went from the property across to the

'estate agents and spoke to them'

and they confirmed they had no tenant in the name of David Jones.

In fact, they were able to look at the documentation as relating

to that tenancy and tell it was false.

Another empty flat, and this time with forged paperwork.

Alarm bells were now ringing from one end of Croydon to the other

and back again.

If it turns out David Jones was making claims to

phoney addresses in order to bank in benefits,

the investigators would be all over him like a rash.

So, the next step was to thumb through council files to see

if anyone else was claiming benefits from David Jones' empty flat.

It's standard practice, really, in a case like this.

And, lo and behold, it came up trumps.

'She found the things that were common,'

such as they all had the same mobile phone number,

that the tenancy documents were broadly the same

and, one crucial bit,

they all seemed to claim that the only income they had, the money

they lived off, was from charitable payments from friends and relatives.

Blimey. They found the landlord, letting agent

and even mobile phone number was the same on seven other claims.

On one hand, I mean, it could just be another coincidence.

On the other hand, it's got the smell of large-scale fraud.

As we started to identify more

and more of the addresses that were being commonly used to make

these claims, we set out on a whole series of visits then,

to look at the properties for ourselves, to photograph them.

I've got some of the images here.

Here's the front door at Zion Road.

You'll see here the front garden.

It was evident to the investigators immediately that these

properties were not occupied.

Within weeks, the team had uncovered over half a dozen more

housing benefit claimants, with almost identical paperwork

to David Jones. Very odd.

We then turned our attention to the tenancy documents that had

been submitted in support of all of these claims.

What was interesting here was

when we did crosschecking with Land Registry records,

we found that the owners of the property were completely fake.

'Land Registry held details of the real owners

'and they weren't the people on the paperwork.'

So, the investigators had proof the addresses were being

falsely used in claims that they now suspected could

run into tens of thousands of pounds.

What they needed was the low-down on the names written on the

claim forms, but, after running them

through every database at their disposal, they'd hit a brick wall.

Determined not to let this case slip away,

investigator Graham Clark had an idea.

He sent the files to his friends at the National Fraud Identity Unit

to have a gander.

They had particular expertise on identifying documents,

such as passports and birth certificates,

so we went to them and showed them the birth certificates that had

been submitted in support of those claims.

They were able to tell us that they were forgeries.

Forged. That doesn't sound good.

If the documents aren't real,

could that mean that David Jones isn't real, either?

Let's look at the facts.

Housing benefit claims coming from empty properties

and claims coming from people who apparently didn't exist.

Something didn't add up

and it was up to the fraud team at Croydon to figure it out.

Luckily, they're good at adding up and they worked out now

they had a benefit fraud involving multiple faked identities,

but how do they work out who's behind it?

We first suspected that it was one of the names on the other

claims that was responsible for the fraud.

'We then make checks with colleagues at

'the Department for Work and Pensions,'

looking, really, to verify the National Insurance numbers

on these identities that are used.

Interestingly, what we found was the only one that they were able

to verify was Emmanuel Ikem.

Ikem... Hold on, Emmanuel Ikem!

We've heard that name before.

Wasn't he the young churchgoer from Croydon who was given

housing benefits when he moved out from Mum and Dad's?

With his name the only one that checked out,

it wasn't looking good for him.

It was when we were checking out some of the tenancy agreements

on the claims, we then found links between Ikem

and some of the other identities.

It seems our churchgoer might not be as saintly as we first thought.

But as the case unravels, it starts to look like an unholy mess.

I've been doing this job for 20-odd years

and I've only come across similar cases maybe six or seven times.

Now, praise be, it's farewell to the fraudsters

and hello to the people we call our saints, those in society that

help others who are in genuine need, but are sometimes too proud

or don't know how to claim what's rightfully theirs.

Kids.

First, they give you sleepless nights, then teenager mood swings

and, to top it all, after all that, they go and leave you.

But I suppose that's the way it should be.

But imagine knowing your child would never grow up to have that

kind of freedom and, in fact,

would need help 24/7 for the rest of their life.

Paul and Carol from Stockton-on-Tees have worked tirelessly,

bringing up their two children.

One has Down's syndrome, but both also suffer from forms of autism.

As you can imagine, juggling the pressures of work

and home life would never be easy

but eventually it all got too much.

We had got ourselves into this big, dark hole

and depression was kicking in with me.

The family life they planned took a different turn with the birth

of their first son, Matthew, who was diagnosed with Down's syndrome.

A lot of our friends couldn't accept him

and would cross the road when they seen us coming.

It was understandably a very difficult time,

but they managed to pick themselves up.

Paul stayed home and looked after Matthew,

while Carol went out to work.

I could earn more than Paul if I went back to work,

so then Paul became househusband.

Three years later, they had their second child, Ryan.

With only one wage coming in and an extra mouth to feed,

money was tight, but the family ploughed on

and for years, just about made ends meet with the money Paul

received for being Matthew's carer and a top up

they got through a benefit scheme to help parents get back to work.

We just cut down, cut back, things they couldn't do.

And if the family didn't have enough to deal with,

when Ryan was about nine, things got even tougher.

Ryan then basically completed an assessment that said

he's on the autistic spectrum.

To be told you have another child

with an additional need

is devastating.

You now know that Ryan is going to need extra support

and he is going to need you to be there.

There was a pressure of that, there was a pressure of I needed to

be at home, but I was a breadwinner, so I needed to be at work, as well.

And all that takes its toll over time.

But the family was about to be dealt another blow.

Due to some changes in the benefit system,

some of the money that was being used to top up Carol's income,

money that the family had come to rely upon, stopped.

One of the answers was for Carol to work more hours,

but all of her spare time was being taken up caring for her

children and their growing needs.

'There's been times where we've gone,'

"Oh, my God, what the...?"

you know, "What are we doing? We can't go on like this."

For Carol, it was inevitable that things had to change.

'My doctor suggested'

that I either concentrate on work

or I concentrate on my home life

but I can't do both.

'And that's the time when it was decided,

'for mental health reasons,'

'I had to give up work.'

Giving up work was a hard decision, as they knew that,

without Carol's income, they'd now struggle to make ends meet.

Carol and Paul had been through some really tough years

and they'd spent so much of their time and energy looking after

the boys, they'd forgotten that they needed looking after too.

It's times like that you could really do with some help.

Carol was put in touch with the George Hardwick Foundation -

a charity that offers help for those caring for young ones.

I think a lot of people like Carol come to us

for support in difficult times.

In the past, many people would get into major financial difficulty -

they'd run up debts that they couldn't pay,

and they'd come to us when in crisis.

Paul and Carol desperately needed someone to look at

whether they were entitled to any additional benefits.

Having a little more income

would completely transform the quality of life

for the whole family.

And after a few weeks of making phone calls and form-filling,

there was finally something to smile about.

Our benefits advice workers helped her claim carer's allowance,

which they were getting for Matthew,

and they didn't realise that they could actually, you know,

because one was caring for Matthew full-time,

the other could actually claim it for Ryan, as well.

It meant the pressure was off and we were allowed to live a little.

But for Carol, the support she needed wasn't just financial.

If you're looking after a child, you're doing it 24/7,

your world revolves around that, you don't have time for a social life, necessarily.

Carol was put in touch with a support group where carers

get together over a cuppa and talk through the stresses

and strains of bringing up kids that need a lot of help.

It was great just having somewhere to go that understood.

I'd found an outlet, I wasn't getting depressed,

I was coping better at home,

which in turn meant the pressure was taken a little more off Paul.

But it didn't stop there. The foundation has all sorts of

facilities that Carol and the boys can use.

From a relaxation centre with massage rooms,

to an in-house cinema for afternoons out, something

which for years had seemed almost impossible.

I'm not saying it was easy, it still had its challenges,

it still had its struggles, but we were out there and we were doing it.

And previous to that, we hadn't been.

The George Hardwick Foundation had worked wonders for Carol, Paul,

and the boys, but just at the point when they were starting to

get a grip on things, they were thrown another curve ball.

The concerns for Carol, at this point in time, were that her son,

Matthew, is turning 19

in February, and there's all sorts of changes

coming through at that stage in his life.

So, basically, with him approaching 19,

the options are to make a choice. Does he claim benefits in his own

right? Or do we continue in terms of the child benefit and child

tax credits side of things, which you currently get for him?

'Making the right decision will be crucial

'if the family's going to continue to keep their heads above water.

'But Carol's confident she's now in safe hands.'

'I think that's the biggest thing, we're not hitting crisis points now.'

If we know something's coming up,

like a major change that's about to happen,

we'll make an appointment and we'll get some more benefits advice.

Carol's life's been changed beyond recognition and knowing just

how much she's been helped, she's wanted to give something back.

She now heads up a support group called Stockton United For Change.

If we can stop one family from hitting crisis point...

..then, to me, that's what it is about.

Carol, Paul and the boys owe a lot to the foundation

and thanks to them, they can now enjoy life as a family once again.

Now, we can look to the future,

which is something we've never, ever thought of.

'It's not just about getting benefits advice or counselling,

'or going and having a massage and a therapy and a relaxation,'

it's about the practicalities to get you through life

and on the right course.

With all the time and energy that Carol and Paul have

put into their family, it's great to see a smile back on their faces.

And hopefully, with all the help and support they're getting,

from here on in, it's onwards and upwards.

And now, back to the scroungers,

where Croydon Council investigators believe they're hot on the heels

of a large-scale housing benefit fraud that could be rinsing

the public purse of tens of thousands of pounds.

Tell me about your team and what you do.

I've got a team of ten investigation staff.

Our job is to look at any allegation

of fraud across the Borough of Croydon.

We've got a whole variety of ways we do that, we have access

to paper records, we've got technology that we use, as well.

And they were going to need it,

cos this was looking like no other ordinary case.

They'd already uncovered claims from a number of hijacked identities

linked to several empty and derelict flats.

A lot of the claims came from St James's Road,

which is right in the heart of the borough,

but we noticed there were some as far north as Silverley Road,

and all the way out in the south to Godstone Road.

One of the names on their radar, Emmanuel Ikem,

was the only benefits claimer they could verify

had a genuine national insurance number and was based in Croydon.

But after months of trawling boarded-up houses

and sifting through council records, they'd hit a dead end.

That was until a call came in from a local bank,

who suspected one of their customers was doing something a bit dodgy.

I know what you're thinking, but no, it wasn't Emmanuel Ikem.

They were looking into accounts in the name of Jermaine Douglas

and they noticed that there were a number of housing benefit

payments going into three accounts and they were wanting clarification.

The team had a new name in their sights, Jermaine Douglas,

whoever he is. Here's the interesting bit,

not only was he registered as living at the same address as some of the

fake claimants, but he was getting their housing benefit payments.

For each of those claims, he was getting as much as £160 a week

going into each of those accounts.

Maths isn't my strong point, but if they're getting 160 quid

a claim, multiply that by ten or so claims, then that is...

That's quite a lot. But it's just the tip of the iceberg.

The team soon traced more of the fake claim payments to other

accounts, this time in the name of Daniel Adelosoye.

And that wasn't all.

A number of the claims, they were asking for benefits

to be paid into business accounts.

When we made enquiries, we found that that account was in the name of Ikem.

So it looks like Ikem, Douglas

and Adelosoye were up to their necks in it, and even using business

accounts to try and further disguise the fact that they were

creaming benefits to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds.

With three names and three accounts, it was looking like a gang.

That's what Graham Clark thought, anyway,

until he saw their photographs.

We did already obtain driving licences in the names of Ikem,

and Jermaine Douglas. In our opinion, they were the same person.

I mean, there is an uncanny resemblance,

but they could be twins with different names. No.

If the team's hunch was right and Ikem and Douglas were the same

person, they'd be a step closer to unravelling this fraud.

We needed a professional opinion.

So we went back to the National Anti-Fraud Network.

All the team could do now is wait anxiously for the outcome.

They confirmed that they were the same person.

Now, this was a key moment

because many of the payments of housing benefits had been

sent to a bank account in the name of Jermaine Douglas.

We now knew that Jermaine Douglas was Ikem, and Ikem was Douglas.

Quite simple, really.

Ikem told the authorities he was now called Jermaine Douglas then

reapplied for a passport in that name.

Once you've got the passport, you can get a bank account,

one with a different name to funnel false claimants' money through.

But that wasn't all they found.

We also knew that the documents that we held, that there was

a driving licence in the name of Daniel Adelosoye that had

the photograph of Emmanuel Ikem and Jermaine Douglas on it.

So we knew we were dealing with one person at this stage, not a gang.

So Ikem was posing as three different people, which would make

him three times as hard to catch, I suppose. Well, in theory.

So, you've got three separate identities for Emmanuel Ikem.

Does it stop there? What happens next?

This has been a very complex fraud. Over a number of years,

but still quite a short period, set up so many identities

and successfully used them to get into the benefit system.

I've been investigating fraud for about 15 years,

and this has been a very, very complex fraud to have committed.

What we're doing now is we're starting to look down at how many

times this identity has been used.

After sifting through hundreds of documents,

they finally pieced it all together.

And it was much bigger than they ever imagined.

We found out about, including his own name, he had in total

made 17 different claims using 14 different identities.

The housing benefit loss to the public purse has

been in excess of £127,000.

Now, that's a substantial amount of money.

You might be wondering what sort of family a benefits cheat comes from.

Well, take Mrs Ikem. I think you'd like her.

Honest, trustworthy, you know, the sort of person that would

report someone to the council if she thought they were up to no good.

Hello?

'We actually had a telephone call from Mrs Ikem'

and she was concerned that there was mail arriving at her own

address for somebody that she thought might be committing benefit fraud.

Now, as it turned out, this was one of the aliases,

one of the false claims that her son was running.

So, not only yet another crooked claim to add to the list,

but he's now been dobbed in by his own mother.

Surely, the game is up.

Mr Ikem was arrested on 1st June 2012,

he attended interview under caution.

At the interview under caution, he chose to read out

a pre-prepared statement. Following the statement, he answered

all of our questions as "No comment."

He did, at the time, also proclaim that he'd committed no fraud.

The team wasn't buying it.

But when it wound up in court, would the judge?

The defence made great play about the fact that he was a regular churchgoer

in an attempt to portray him as somebody of good character.

But, as far as we're concerned, that's totally irrelevant.

This was a very high profile fraud,

which involved a large degree of sophistication and planning.

'And the goody two-shoes act wasn't fooling anyone.

'He ended up pleading guilty to making 13 false housing'

benefit claims, defrauding Croydon Council out of around £99,000.

And for that, he got two years in the slammer.

Inevitably, it was going to come crashing down, wasn't it?

-With so many identities?

-I think, with so many identities,

it always was going to come crashing down around him,

purely because he'd made it

so complex for himself to run or to continue to run this fraud.

It's a great result, but there's still one mystery.

He's never explained where he found those names

and how he started using them.

I've been doing this job for 20-odd years,

and I've only come across similar cases maybe six or seven times.

He'd have only put as much energy and enthusiasm into doing the right

thing instead of the wrong thing, he could have been a formidable talent.

This is just pure greed and nothing else.

So the fraud team's work finally paid off.

After sorting through numerous addresses and identities,

Ikem is now living where he should be -

at Her Majesty's pleasure.