0:00:02 > 0:00:04One of the things that makes this country great
0:00:04 > 0:00:07is that when we find someone in genuine need we help them out.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10A much-needed handout when times are tough.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13It's a terrible experience, it's like hitting a brick wall.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16But whenever there's cash on offer,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19you'll always find someone who wants to steal it.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22She would not have been entitled to
0:00:22 > 0:00:26any benefits or any public service financial help at all.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31Those who cheat the system often get what's coming to them.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33She went to prison there and then
0:00:33 > 0:00:39and when she was sentenced, the judge was very critical of her actions.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43This is the world of Saints And Scroungers.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Saints And Scroungers highlights the worthy and the greedy people
0:01:08 > 0:01:12who are using and abusing our welfare state system.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15On one hand, there are people with legitimate needs
0:01:15 > 0:01:18and, on the other, fraudsters, bent on ripping off the taxpayer.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21It's a war that's fought every day across the UK.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Fraud investigators bringing the cheats to justice
0:01:24 > 0:01:25and saints fighting to make sure
0:01:25 > 0:01:28people facing a struggle get what they deserve.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30Coming up on today's show...
0:01:30 > 0:01:32A mysterious jobseeker
0:01:32 > 0:01:35who's been illegally claiming benefits for over a decade.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37When she stood up in the dock,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40this was the first time that she identified herself.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41And we meet an entrepreneur
0:01:41 > 0:01:45who finds help to get back to work after a series of personal setbacks.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48If the scheme didn't exist, they would rely on
0:01:48 > 0:01:52the benefit and welfare system to support themselves.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59There are plenty of people here in the chilly UK
0:01:59 > 0:02:03who would love to live somewhere nice and warm overseas,
0:02:03 > 0:02:04the Caribbean or Spain,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07somewhere with sun, sea and sand.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09But then there are many people overseas
0:02:09 > 0:02:10who'd quite like to live here,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14because we've got jobs, a health system, education...
0:02:14 > 0:02:15Oh, yeah!
0:02:15 > 0:02:17And benefits!
0:02:19 > 0:02:21Meet one woman who, when she arrived in the UK,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25did more than most to get the very best out of our welfare system.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28This person goes by the name of Collette Williams.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30She was apparently struggling
0:02:30 > 0:02:33to find work and had to rely on the state for help.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37According to her records, she was born and bred in southeast London,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40but when she moved to the southwest of the city,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43what appeared to be a straightforward benefit claim
0:02:43 > 0:02:45turned out to be anything but.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49I've come to Croydon Council to find out a bit more about her claim.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53Fraud investigator Graham Clark was part of the team
0:02:53 > 0:02:55that dealt with her case.
0:02:56 > 0:02:57Who was Collette Williams?
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Tell me a little bit about her, her background, where she came from.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Well, Collette Williams is somebody,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08as far as we know, that was born in the UK,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11in the Lewisham area of London
0:03:11 > 0:03:15and has lived in London all her life.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18And she came to find herself in Croydon?
0:03:18 > 0:03:22She did, yes. She first came to our notice
0:03:22 > 0:03:25when she moved from the Lambeth area,
0:03:25 > 0:03:31rented a house in the Thornton Heath district of the borough,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35and put in a claim for housing benefit for that address.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39She'd also been in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance,
0:03:39 > 0:03:48housing and council tax benefit from, as far back as we can make out, 2002.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50And that claim was made on the basis
0:03:50 > 0:03:53of her being a single person and unemployed.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56So for you to be sure that Collette
0:03:56 > 0:03:59was receiving these benefits legitimately,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01what would you need from her?
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Well, first of all, we would need some form of identity,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06and it would be the usual type,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10sort of either birth certificate or a passport.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14Collette sent us in her birth certificate,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19which we had no reason to suspect was dodgy in any way.
0:04:19 > 0:04:24We also had a tenancy agreement from her landlord with a request
0:04:24 > 0:04:28for the housing benefit to be paid into the landlord's account.
0:04:28 > 0:04:29The fraud team at Croydon Council
0:04:29 > 0:04:31didn't think there was anything wrong
0:04:31 > 0:04:33with Collette's housing benefit claim.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36But after their colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions
0:04:36 > 0:04:39advised them about their investigation into her claim
0:04:39 > 0:04:42for Jobseeker's Allowance, that soon changed.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Mark Simpson was the lead investigator in the case.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50We work a lot with other Government departments
0:04:50 > 0:04:54and local authorities to uncover the full extent of frauds.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59We would normally find if a person is committing a benefit fraud,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01they often have committed frauds
0:05:01 > 0:05:04against other Government departments or the local authorities.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07And the fraud that Mark was investigating
0:05:07 > 0:05:09would have a direct impact on the benefits that Croydon
0:05:09 > 0:05:11had been giving Collette.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16We received an anonymous call on the National Benefit Fraud Hotline
0:05:16 > 0:05:18which suggested
0:05:18 > 0:05:22that Collette Williams was in fact not Collette Williams,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26that the real Collette Williams had been resident
0:05:26 > 0:05:29in the United States of America since at least 1992.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Hold on a minute!
0:05:31 > 0:05:34If Collette Williams had been living abroad since '92,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38who'd been claiming her benefits for the last ten years?
0:05:39 > 0:05:43The investigating team was looking at a case that potentially
0:05:43 > 0:05:47included frauds against both the Department for Work and Pensions
0:05:47 > 0:05:48and Croydon Council.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53So it was going to take some fairly joined-up investigating
0:05:53 > 0:05:56to work out what had really been going on.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58When we receive an allegation, obviously,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00we do some basic checks internally.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05If that throws up any questions that need to be answered
0:06:05 > 0:06:08then we obviously would make further inquiries
0:06:08 > 0:06:10with other Government departments.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12What we wanted to establish was
0:06:12 > 0:06:16what was the identity of Collette Williams.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19We had only been presented with a birth certificate
0:06:19 > 0:06:20and medical certificate
0:06:20 > 0:06:23during the period of her benefit claim,
0:06:23 > 0:06:28so our first lines of thoughts were, does she have a UK passport?
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Mark carried out checks to establish
0:06:31 > 0:06:33if a Collette Williams with the same date of birth
0:06:33 > 0:06:37as the Collette Williams claiming benefit in South London
0:06:37 > 0:06:38had in fact left the country.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42We made inquiries with the Identity and Passport Service
0:06:42 > 0:06:43into Collette Williams
0:06:43 > 0:06:47to find out whether any passports had been issued to her in the UK.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51The Identity and Passport Service said that
0:06:51 > 0:06:54there'd been no UK-issued passports,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57but when we made inquiries with them again
0:06:57 > 0:07:01with regards to passports that had been issued overseas,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05a passport had been issued in the name Collette Williams in Washington
0:07:05 > 0:07:07in the United States of America,
0:07:07 > 0:07:12using a birth certificate which was identical to the birth certificate
0:07:12 > 0:07:14that had been supplied to the department
0:07:14 > 0:07:17for Collette Williams to claim benefit.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20Collette Williams was in America.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24How could her birth certificate be used to claim benefits over here?
0:07:24 > 0:07:26It's starting to sound a bit dodgy.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29The intelligence that had been established
0:07:29 > 0:07:31by the Identity and Passport Service
0:07:31 > 0:07:37obviously threw up a problem about who the real Collette Williams was.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and the consulate people in the United States of America
0:07:42 > 0:07:43were able to tell us...
0:07:43 > 0:07:47were able to provide us with a copy of the documents actually issued
0:07:47 > 0:07:51to Collette Williams, a copy of her passport application
0:07:51 > 0:07:56and a copy of the photo that was used for the passport.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01With contact details and a picture of the Collette Williams in America,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04investigators decided to call her to find out what she knew
0:08:04 > 0:08:10about her birth certificate being used to make the benefit claims.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15She told us that she had moved from the UK at a very early age
0:08:15 > 0:08:17and had lived in America for a number of years.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21She couldn't get hold of any details of her birth
0:08:21 > 0:08:24or a copy of her birth certificate,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27so therefore she had to contact the consulate
0:08:27 > 0:08:29in the United States of America
0:08:29 > 0:08:31to obtain a copy of her birth certificate.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Her original birth certificate had gone missing.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Well, that explains how it could have fallen into the wrong hands.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40The fraud team now believed
0:08:40 > 0:08:44the Collette Williams in America was the genuine person
0:08:44 > 0:08:46who the Department for Work and Pensions
0:08:46 > 0:08:48and officials in Croydon Council
0:08:48 > 0:08:50thought they were giving benefits to.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54So if the real Collette Williams was thousands of miles away,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57who exactly had been claiming benefits every two weeks
0:08:57 > 0:08:59in Thornton Heath?
0:08:59 > 0:09:02It was time to investigate the impostor
0:09:02 > 0:09:07who may have been ripping off the taxpayer for nearly a decade.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10We didn't have any photographic evidence
0:09:10 > 0:09:13of the Collette Williams who lived in the UK,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15so we decided to set up some covert surveillance
0:09:15 > 0:09:19in the Job Centre when she signed on,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22just purely her signing on at the Job Centre,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25and she had a short discussion with the benefit advisor
0:09:25 > 0:09:27and then left the office.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30During the surveillance, investigators noticed
0:09:30 > 0:09:33that the suspect spoke with a heavy Jamaican accent,
0:09:33 > 0:09:34which was suspicious
0:09:34 > 0:09:37because the details they had about Collette Williams on file
0:09:37 > 0:09:39showed that she was a Londoner.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43So this woman didn't look like Collette Williams or sound like her.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Mark and his team had seen enough to step up the investigation.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51When we got the photographs from the surveillance,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54it was felt that we had enough evidence
0:09:54 > 0:09:58to have the UK Collette Williams arrested
0:09:58 > 0:10:02and interviewed to establish who she actually was.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06And it was an arrest that had to be carefully planned.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10It was decided to arrest Collette Williams in this country
0:10:10 > 0:10:14when she next signed on at the Job Centre
0:10:14 > 0:10:17as part of her Jobseeker's Agreement.
0:10:18 > 0:10:23We were unable to arrest her at the Job Centre,
0:10:23 > 0:10:28but she was seen walking along the street towards her home address
0:10:28 > 0:10:31following her visit to the Job Centre,
0:10:31 > 0:10:34and she was arrested then by the police.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36When she was approached by the police,
0:10:36 > 0:10:40she identified herself as Collette Williams.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Well, if she'd been pretending to be someone for the past ten years,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47it could be quite hard to break a habit.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49But who was this person?
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Now she was under arrest, the investigators planned to find out.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55During the course of the interview,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58she answered, "No comment," to any of the questions.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Following on from the arrest, we did not know who this woman was.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09For now, though, it's farewell to the shakers and fakers
0:11:09 > 0:11:12and hello to the people we call our saints,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16those in society that assist others who are in real need
0:11:16 > 0:11:18but who are too proud or often don't know how to claim
0:11:18 > 0:11:20what they're entitled to.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26When life takes an unexpected turn,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29it doesn't just destroy the plans that you have for the future,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33but very often all the hard work that you've put in in the past.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35That's why, when tragedy strikes,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38you can need some help to get back on track.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42Richard Offor and his partner Helen
0:11:42 > 0:11:44had been living together for over 20 years
0:11:44 > 0:11:46and carefully planned their future
0:11:46 > 0:11:48to make sure they'd got exactly what they wanted
0:11:48 > 0:11:50as they approached middle age.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54I realised many years ago when I was a teenager
0:11:54 > 0:11:56that people spend their lives chasing money,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59but they don't have a quality of life.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02I decided to have the lifestyle and the quality of life,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05so I effectively semi-retired at 30.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09The couple took a big step towards fulfilling their ambitions
0:12:09 > 0:12:10when they moved to Wales
0:12:10 > 0:12:13and started up a horticultural business.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16The change gave them a better quality of life
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and allowed Richard more time to indulge in his passion.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Paragliding is something that takes up quite a bit of time.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24You can be up all day if the weather conditions allow.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26You have total freedom, it's like being a bird.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Richard is a very experienced paraglider,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33but when he went flying in the French Alps in June 2009,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36he had an accident that would change his life for ever.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Decided I was going to go down, land in the valley.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45Suddenly I went and looked for some lift, and I got a lot of lift,
0:12:45 > 0:12:46went back up 3,500, 4,000 feet,
0:12:46 > 0:12:51went to land and suddenly I lost about 500 feet very quickly.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54I actually got ground rush before I hit the ground.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57Richard had hit the ground at 40mph
0:12:57 > 0:13:00and sustained life-threatening injuries on impact.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03All the time, I wasn't really aware what was going on
0:13:03 > 0:13:04because I suffered a lot of trauma.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07I knew I was in trouble because I couldn't move my legs properly.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10I got a phone call, it must have been about 1.45 in the afternoon,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12saying he's had a bad accident.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15I didn't know exactly what state he was in.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19I knew he was alive, but I didn't know the state of his injury.
0:13:19 > 0:13:25I was taken to hospital in Annecy for basic assessment, they X-rayed me.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27They looked at the X-rays,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30which showed my spinal cord had an S shape in it
0:13:30 > 0:13:32and my vertebra L1 was shattered.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Richard's future now lay in the hands of surgeons,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38but it was going to take a minor miracle to repair the damage.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40They operated on me,
0:13:40 > 0:13:45but I still the following day couldn't move my legs, really.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Richard's accident left him paralysed from the waist down.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52As he lay recovering in hospital, it was Helen
0:13:52 > 0:13:56that had to help him cope with the worst possible prognosis.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02When he returned to the UK and was admitted to Oswestry,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05he was told that he probably wouldn't walk again...
0:14:05 > 0:14:09and he'd be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11As Richard struggled to come to terms with the thought
0:14:11 > 0:14:15of spending the rest of his life without being able to walk again,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18he also had to endure a very painful recovery.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22I'd had rods put in my back to fix it, stabilise it,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24and that's over five vertebrae.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27I had to be turned every four hours to avoid getting bedsores.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30I couldn't get up, I couldn't really clean myself,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33I couldn't even sit up, I was lying down all the time.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36I had to eat lying down, horizontal.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39I had to have six weeks of that, bed rest.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43While Richard was in hospital,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Helen was left to take care of their horticultural business on her own,
0:14:46 > 0:14:50and, despite her best efforts, it went downhill fast.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55We kept roughly around 25,000, 30,000 plants in pots
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and containers on site, and typically it took
0:14:58 > 0:15:02between four and six hours a day to water all that lot,
0:15:02 > 0:15:03because we have to hand-water.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06It was decided to sacrifice the stock,
0:15:06 > 0:15:09we didn't have the resources or the money
0:15:09 > 0:15:11to pay people to come in and water.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13We estimate that we lost £30,000,
0:15:13 > 0:15:17but at retail it was more like a quarter of a million.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22We thought... what are we going to do?
0:15:22 > 0:15:26The couple had painstakingly built up their business from scratch
0:15:26 > 0:15:30and now it was looking like all that hard work was for nothing.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32When Richard did finally leave hospital,
0:15:32 > 0:15:36the future was looking bleak in more ways than one.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39I was discharged with the prospect
0:15:39 > 0:15:42of probably no further recovery at the time.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Faced with the challenge of living with a disability,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Richard had to adapt to what his body could and couldn't do.
0:15:51 > 0:15:57Within a few weeks, I was sent to meet my local physiotherapist.
0:15:57 > 0:16:04She gave me an exercise regime which I did 25 hours a week,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08and I got better, I improved.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12And in the new year, he made some startling progress.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15I started being able to take a few steps, still holding on to things...
0:16:15 > 0:16:19And he said, "Oh, come and have a look at this,"
0:16:19 > 0:16:23and he was staggering around, holding on to the work surfaces.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26And that's how it's progressed ever since.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Richard was making exceptional progress,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33but financially, the couple were in a dire situation.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35The business was making huge losses,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38and they had to get used to the idea of living on benefits.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40When I came out of hospital,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43I automatically got Disability Living Allowance.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Disability Living Allowance is there
0:16:45 > 0:16:48to help you meet extra costs when you come out,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50when you're looking after yourself,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52so I qualified for the higher rate of mobility,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55and because I could dress myself and wash myself effectively,
0:16:55 > 0:16:57I just got the lower rate of care.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00And it's not a lot, but it's just helpful.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Richard also received Employment Support Allowance
0:17:03 > 0:17:06in addition to Disability Living Allowance,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09but he was determined not to live on benefits.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12What he wanted was help to get back to work,
0:17:12 > 0:17:14so he could get his business back on track.
0:17:14 > 0:17:21I was determined to go back to work, cos I'm a worker. I can't sit around.
0:17:21 > 0:17:22And it looked like a Government scheme
0:17:22 > 0:17:24that assists people with disabilities
0:17:24 > 0:17:28to get back into the workplace might be able to offer him support.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Andrew Legg manages a team of advisors
0:17:31 > 0:17:34who assess applications from disabled people for help.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38Access To Work support
0:17:38 > 0:17:40can range from simple solutions,
0:17:40 > 0:17:42such as a piece of specialist equipment
0:17:42 > 0:17:45or software that would enable a customer to carry on working,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48to ongoing support such as help with travel costs to work
0:17:48 > 0:17:51if a customer would have difficulty getting to and from work.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54The scheme teamed Richard up with an advisor
0:17:54 > 0:17:57to assess the kind of help that he would need
0:17:57 > 0:17:58to get back into work.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01They looked around the nursery, they saw we'd concreted it all,
0:18:01 > 0:18:03but it was too rough for a wheelchair.
0:18:03 > 0:18:04The first thing we looked at
0:18:04 > 0:18:07is how Richard would be able to get round his land.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10In order to do that, he'd need to have the surface re-laid.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14We provided Richard with a discretionary grant
0:18:14 > 0:18:16that enabled him to go ahead and get that work done.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21It cost £37,500 to resurface the roads across the nursery,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23and this was a massive help for Richard,
0:18:23 > 0:18:25but in order for him to achieve his goal
0:18:25 > 0:18:26and get back to full-time employment,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30he was going to need more assistance from the Government scheme.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32When Richard's advisor realised
0:18:32 > 0:18:35that he was committed to returning to full-time work,
0:18:35 > 0:18:37he recommended a grant
0:18:37 > 0:18:41that would help him buy a very special bit of kit.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43Before he had his accident,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46he was able to manually lift and carry the things into the tunnels,
0:18:46 > 0:18:47so what we looked at doing
0:18:47 > 0:18:50was providing him with a miniature forklift truck
0:18:50 > 0:18:51that could fit into the tunnels
0:18:51 > 0:18:55and allow him to still take things in and out of the tunnels.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57The small forklift that cost £7,000
0:18:57 > 0:19:01made a huge difference to what Richard could do around the nursery.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06If I want a bag of compost, I just go and get the pallet.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09The help that Richard got from Access To Work
0:19:09 > 0:19:11enabled him to turn around his business
0:19:11 > 0:19:14and get it to start running productively again.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18We were able to actually do the following plant season.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Helen had to do nearly all the work.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22I could sit there at a table and put the soil in pots
0:19:22 > 0:19:23and pot the plants up.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25We did all right.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29He wasn't able to use all of his land because of his disability,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32but after speaking to his Access To Work advisor,
0:19:32 > 0:19:34they came up with a plan.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36There's an area of Richard's land
0:19:36 > 0:19:40where he grows other items that's rough terrain,
0:19:40 > 0:19:41that couldn't be re-laid.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43So we looked at providing a grant
0:19:43 > 0:19:46for him to be able to purchase an all-terrain utility vehicle
0:19:46 > 0:19:49to allow him to get to those areas of his land as well.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54It's like a quad bike, but with a cab on it and a bit bigger.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57The purchase of the all-terrain vehicle,
0:19:57 > 0:19:59which cost just over £11,000,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01was the final piece of the jigsaw
0:20:01 > 0:20:04that allowed Richard to get back to work full-time.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06Without Access To Work,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09it would have been, if not impossible, very difficult
0:20:09 > 0:20:12for me to have gone back to work.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17Richard still faces a struggle to get his business back on track,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19but it is reassuring to know that
0:20:19 > 0:20:22if you're landed with a disability that affects your work,
0:20:22 > 0:20:27you can get help to make sure that you can earn an honest crust.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35Great stuff! Now it's scrounger time again!
0:20:36 > 0:20:40The fraud team at the Department for Work and Pensions has discovered
0:20:40 > 0:20:43that someone's been using UK citizen Collette Williams' name
0:20:43 > 0:20:46to claim benefits while she is living
0:20:46 > 0:20:48over 3,500 miles away in America.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51It's an investigation where the Government fraud team
0:20:51 > 0:20:54has to join forces with their local authority partners in Croydon
0:20:54 > 0:20:56in order to crack the case.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02It was only when we got that phone call from DWP
0:21:02 > 0:21:06that we gave them the information that they required.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Once we realised there was an issue
0:21:08 > 0:21:12with the housing and council tax benefit claim,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14I put a stop to those payments going out.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Mark and his team
0:21:17 > 0:21:21had successfully arrested the person posing as Collette Williams,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24but they still didn't know her real identity.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26And when they took the suspect
0:21:26 > 0:21:28back to her address to search her property,
0:21:28 > 0:21:30they were faced with another problem.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33When the police arrived at the property,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36there was another female at the property at the time
0:21:36 > 0:21:42who said at the time that she was the niece of Collette Williams,
0:21:42 > 0:21:44but when the two ladies were asked
0:21:44 > 0:21:48for identity documents with photographs,
0:21:48 > 0:21:52they could not provide any documents whatsoever.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57Hang on! So now Collette Williams has got a niece.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59Where did she come from?
0:22:02 > 0:22:06The investigators now had two mysterious women on their hands,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09with no ID to prove who they were.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13They needed some clues to identify the pair
0:22:13 > 0:22:16and they found them in the most unlikely of places.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21During the course of the search,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24some greeting cards and birthday cards, etc, were found
0:22:24 > 0:22:27in the name of Annie or Annette.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30We also found a birth certificate
0:22:30 > 0:22:35of a child with the surname Harrison hidden underneath the bed.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39So not Collette Williams's missing birth certificate,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42but one with the surname Harrison. It wasn't much,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45but the two new names that had popped up in the search
0:22:45 > 0:22:49were enough to give Mark and his team something to follow up.
0:22:49 > 0:22:53In this type of investigation against Collette Williams,
0:22:53 > 0:22:54it's often like a jigsaw puzzle
0:22:54 > 0:22:57that you need several pieces to fit together
0:22:57 > 0:22:59to complete the full picture.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03Following the arrest of the person reporting to be Collette Williams,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05she was taken back to a police station
0:23:05 > 0:23:08and interviewed by officers of the Department for Work and Pensions.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10During the course of the interview,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13she answered, "No comment," to any of the questions,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17to all of the questions, she said, "No comment."
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Therefore we were unable to establish anything from that interview.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24OK. The investigators may not have been successful
0:23:24 > 0:23:26in getting an admission of guilt during the interview,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29but the background checks into the two names that had surfaced
0:23:29 > 0:23:31did get a result.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34We decided to make some inquiries
0:23:34 > 0:23:39with the UK Border Agency as regards to an Annette Harrison.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43UKBA told us that they had an application
0:23:43 > 0:23:46from an Annette Harrison in 2002
0:23:46 > 0:23:48for settlement in the UK.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51And, in fact, she was a Jamaican citizen.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56UKBA supplied us with a photograph of the Annette Harrison
0:23:56 > 0:24:01and this matched the identity of the lady that we had arrested
0:24:01 > 0:24:03and subsequently interviewed.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08Annette Harrison was an illegal immigrant,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and the investigators also discovered
0:24:10 > 0:24:12that the other young woman
0:24:12 > 0:24:15who said she was Collette Williams' niece
0:24:15 > 0:24:16was in fact Annette's daughter.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20How had they managed to get away with living a lie for so long?
0:24:20 > 0:24:23So who was Annette Harrison?
0:24:23 > 0:24:26Well, Annette Harrison, it turns out,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30was somebody who had come over with her daughter from Jamaica
0:24:30 > 0:24:35some time ago, just on a visitor's visa...
0:24:35 > 0:24:39which would normally only have been for six months,
0:24:39 > 0:24:44but had stayed in the country and had gone under the radar
0:24:44 > 0:24:49of the benefits authorities, the UK Border Agency...
0:24:49 > 0:24:52and then obviously she had then decided
0:24:52 > 0:24:55to assume the identity of Collette.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00Annette had no claims, had no entitlement to benefit whatsoever -
0:25:00 > 0:25:02because she was a Jamaican national
0:25:02 > 0:25:04and only over here on a visitor's visa,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08she would not have been entitled to any benefits
0:25:08 > 0:25:11or any public service financial help at all.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Mark's fraud team at the Department for Work and Pensions
0:25:14 > 0:25:18took the lead in putting the case together against Harrison,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21and at the trial, they were pleased when she came clean.
0:25:21 > 0:25:27At court, she had been charged with five counts of false representation.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29When she stood up in the dock
0:25:29 > 0:25:33and she was asked for her identity by the clerk,
0:25:33 > 0:25:34this was the first time
0:25:34 > 0:25:37that she identified herself as Annette Harrison.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40She pleaded guilty to all five charges.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Annette Harrison was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47And at the end of her sentence, the UK Border Agency
0:25:47 > 0:25:51will look to have her deported back to Jamaica.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54It was a good result for the fraud teams,
0:25:54 > 0:25:58but the scam had cost the taxpayers serious money.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00During the ten years of her benefit claim,
0:26:00 > 0:26:05Annette Harrison had fraudulently claimed over £47,000 of benefits.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10The real Collette Williams, who still lives in the US,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13had no idea that someone had stolen her identity
0:26:13 > 0:26:14to claim benefits,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17but thanks to the teamwork in the investigation,
0:26:17 > 0:26:19Annette Harrison has been stopped from ripping off
0:26:19 > 0:26:22the British taxpayer any further in her name.
0:26:22 > 0:26:28Wherever possible we will always look to work with other agencies,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31in particular the DWP,
0:26:31 > 0:26:33because you can then share the intelligence
0:26:33 > 0:26:35that each organisation has got
0:26:35 > 0:26:37to get to an end result a lot quicker.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Annette thought she could cheat our benefits system
0:26:41 > 0:26:42and get away with it.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46The net result is that after she's served her sentence,
0:26:46 > 0:26:47she'll be deported.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51Unfortunately, none of this really does anything
0:26:51 > 0:26:55to mend the reputation of the real Collette Williams,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57who is completely innocent.