Episode 19 Saints and Scroungers

We pay our taxes for all sorts of things - roads, education, health,

but they also go to help those less fortunate few in genuine need of financial support.

We just could not afford it.

We also expose the frauds who cheat us, the British taxpayer, out of our hard-earned cash.

This is just pure greed and nothing else.

Thankfully, the benefit blaggers are being watched.

If what you've been doing is criminal, you could end up in prison.

This is Saints...And Scroungers.

Saints And Scroungers looks at how taxpayers' money is both used and abused.

On one side, you have those in legitimate need, on the other, those just driven by greed.

Every day in the UK, anti-fraud teams are on a mission to ensure cheats get their comeuppance

and the saints strive to help those that deserve support to claim what's rightfully theirs.

Coming up on today's show...

A housing benefit fraudster prepared to go to the ends of the Earth.

There was a concern that he actually had absconded abroad.

And I meet a young family in need of support as they work tirelessly to care for their sick daughter.

It took the stress away from me.

"There's no place like home." That's what Dorothy said to Toto.

But imagine if all those comforts you take for granted at home just weren't there

because you didn't have a home,

things like sitting on the sofa watching the telly or having a hot bath.

That's something that Ahmed Mohamedy should know all about.

About 20 years ago, he got himself into a bit of a rut, poor bloke,

and was unable to get a job.

It's a familiar story and can happen to the best of us.

Ahmed turned to the good old British benefit system

to help him get through those tough times,

to put a roof over his family's head and give him a few quid a week for the basics.

Ravinder Singh at Ealing Council had no reason to believe

there was anything out of the ordinary about his claim.

Ahmed Mohamedy declared no income

and his housing benefit claim was based on the fact he was in receipt of income support.

Initially, based on the type of accommodation that Ahmed was residing in,

his housing benefit was approximately £120 per week

and his income support roughly about £150 a week.

By 2002, Ahmed Mohamedy had been claiming income support

or housing and council tax benefits for around ten years

and here's the interesting bit.

He then contacted Ealing Council and said he wanted to stop his payments.

What an honest chap! He took from the kitty when he needed help, but then told them as soon as he didn't.

People come in and cease their claim for benefit for a variety of reasons.

They might have come into some money, found a job,

found a property they didn't have to pay any rent on or go back to live with relatives, etcetera.

So, one less claimant. That's a good thing, right?

It means that there's more money for those who really need it.

Hold on then. If this guy's no longer getting benefits,

why are we still interested in Ahmed?

Something Ealing Council perhaps need to investigate.

The London Borough of Ealing received information from an anonymous source,

stating that this gentleman had in fact a couple of properties in his own name

and was also the director of a business and had an income.

You what? Houses and a business? If there was any truth to the tip-off

and he did have his own house and profitable business whilst he was claiming benefits,

then he could be in a lot of trouble,

but it could just be a simple misunderstanding.

It was up to the fraud investigator, who wishes to remain anonymous, to see if the allegation was true

and he started by having a closer look at the property.

You check the veracity of the evidence that's given to you or the allegation

and the obvious thing to do is to check the Land Registry records

to see who is the registered owner of the property

and in this case Mr Mohamedy was the owner of the property.

OK, but he could have just bought the house.

He's already been in contact with the council to tell them that he no longer needs his benefits.

Maybe he recently got left something by a long-lost uncle or got lucky on the pools.

We did a historic Land Registry check on the property.

It showed that prior to him owning it in his own name, he jointly owned it with his father.

And on the basis that he had 50% ownership of the property,

then the likelihood would be that he wouldn't be entitled to benefit

from the very first date he claimed.

In fact, he had part-owned it since 1987,

five years before he claimed he had no home,

so it wasn't looking too good for old Ahmed,

but there could be an honest reason behind all of this

like someone else owns the house who also just happens to be called Ahmed Mohamedy.

Stranger things have happened. Once again, the fraud investigator went in search of answers.

First on the list, contact the mortgage lender for some more details.

It was the same gentleman, the same Ahmed Mohamedy who was claiming housing benefit

and once that was established, they provided a copy of the application form

and that led to other discrepancies that hadn't been declared to the Housing Benefit Department.

The mortgage application showed that he was a self-employed trader

and was operating a company called Caspian Services

and had declared an income of 50 grand a year.

Confident they were now hot on the trail of a benefit cheat,

the team now had to track down these alleged earnings

and they didn't have to look very far.

The mortgage application showed that he had undeclared bank accounts

and I applied to the National Anti-Fraud Network

to obtain copies of these bank statements.

Once these were provided, it showed that he had a considerable income going in and out of the account,

not in keeping with a man of his declared means.

"Considerable" - that's a bit of an understatement.

One account showed a balance of £104,000,

so clearly he doesn't need to claim a few hundred a week extra from benefits, does he?

The evidence continued to mount up as the fraud investigator discovered

that Ahmed Mohamedy is also the registered owner of a flat in the Ealing area, as well as a house,

but he was adamant that he was living in a rented house at the taxpayer's expense.

The investigator suspected if Ahmed wasn't living in the properties he owned, he could be renting them out.

Yet more undisclosed income.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

If the answer is yes, you're thinking it's time they brought him in for questioning.

The last claim, he was claiming in Lynmouth Gardens. This was a house.

I dropped off an appointment letter at his address

and he contacted me to say he couldn't come in on that occasion.

Maybe he was just genuinely busy.

He sent a fax in response to the "interview under caution" letter

and said he no longer lived at Lynmouth Gardens

and that he hadn't done anything wrong and we should go after the real fraudsters.

But that didn't wash with the fraud investigator.

He was convinced he was knocking on the door of a real council con man,

so he wasn't going to give up at the first hurdle and decided to have one more stab at making contact.

I took another letter round to Mr Mohamedy's old address

or the address he said he no longer lived at, because even if he wasn't living there,

there's a chance he would still get hold of the letter as people usually return to collect their mail

or have it forwarded, but he still didn't come in for the interview.

So first, it's a load of excuses,

then he seems to disappear off the radar.

Now convinced that Ahmed was giving them the slip,

the team checked with the Department for Work and Pensions.

They provided them with another address

where he was also registered as living.

Would they have more luck this time?

The investigator went to the address in Lee Road

to deliver the "interview under caution" letter.

There was no answer, so the letter was posted through the letter box,

but Mr Mohamedy failed to attend the interview.

No matter how many letters they sent to Ahmed, to how many different addresses,

he still hadn't come in to explain himself. There was always some excuse or another.

The fraud investigators started to suspect he had something to hide.

Further information came in through the anonymous tip,

indicating that Ahmed was in fact married to his landlady.

Ah, but will it help them get any closer to their man?

There was a concern that he had absconded abroad.

For now, it's farewell to the fraudsters and hello to the people we call our saints,

those in society that help others in genuine need,

but who are too proud or don't know how to claim what's rightfully theirs.

We're lucky here in the UK to live in a country

that is largely free from conflict and political unrest,

but imagine if you had to flee your own country and move to the other side of the world,

and then once you arrived, discovered that your child had a sickness so severe

that it threatened your home, your work and the very foundations of your family.

'That's the situation that parents-of-two Mythili and Nagul Naguleswaran found themselves in.

'13 years ago, they were forced to flee their home country of Sri Lanka

'and were granted asylum in the UK

'where they've worked hard earning a living and rebuilding a life for themselves,

'but things took a dramatic turn for the worse

'when their daughter Kashavi was told she had a serious problem with her spine.'

The physio looked at it and said she'd got scoliosis.

We had a hard time from two years onwards,

on and off hospitals, check-ups.

'It pushed the family and inevitably their income to the limit

'and this has left them with financial difficulties.

'They were in dire need of some help, but didn't know what was out there or where to go.'

Last four, five years it's been quite a hard life.

'Unfortunately, Kashavi's just had to have another operation,

'so I'm heading to the orthopaedic hospital in Stanmore to see how her and her mum are doing.'

LAUGHTER

That's a lovely picture.

So tell me about the first diagnosis you had for Kashavi after she was born.

The physio said slightly was bending, the spine.

What effect does it have on her, on the way she moves?

What does it mean for her future?

Walking ability... is very difficult.

She's getting worse...

because the back is bending.

'This condition means Kashavi needs more help than most kids just getting around

'and she's also been diagnosed with a genetic disorder

'which means she has learning difficulties as well.'

-It's lovely.

-I'm going to send it to your dad, so he can have it.

'13 years ago, things were very different for Mythili and Nagul.

'They had just moved to the UK and were happily finding their feet.

'Nagul was working hard running a petrol station

'while Mythili was an accounts assistant at a local hotel.'

Financial-wise, we were able to manage.

We have a nice house. You know, we have a nice life.

'Once they were settled and bringing in enough to support a family,

'Mythili and Nagul started trying for a baby, and the following year, Kashavi was born.'

-I was so happy when we found out it was a girl.

-The first three, four months, it's fine.

'But when their daughter Kashavi was diagnosed, life changed very quickly.'

-Looking after Kashavi is a full-time job.

-Yeah.

Your job has been put to one side?

Put to one side because my husband told me to.

We haven't got the choice. I've got an 11-month-old daughter as well. I have to look after them properly.

How are you coping with this?

I don't understand how you can go from two full-time jobs...

Yeah, it's very hard because financially, it's very difficult at the moment.

'The family was at breaking point.

'Dad was working all hours to try to cover the shortfall since losing Mum's wage

'and Kashavi's spine got so bad, she was barely able to walk.

'They needed things to make her life more comfortable

'like a more suitable bed and help with her schooling.

'They'd paid into the system for the past 13 years,

'but didn't know if they would qualify for any financial help or even how to go about claiming it.

'It was around this time they were put in contact with Sam Raby at the charity Contact A Family.

'They support parents who deal with children who have disabilities.'

I met Mythili, Nagul and Kashavi in early December 2011.

Mythili was quite heavily pregnant with her new child.

They just wanted a little bit of help in terms of support for Kashavi who was really struggling to walk.

'Mythili and Nagul weren't claiming anything,

'so Sam helped Mum and Dad fill out the paperwork to apply for some Disability Living Allowance

'to help out with Kashavi's growing needs.

'But there was a problem with their application.'

We waited for the decision letter to come back a few weeks later.

They got a rejection letter saying, "We've looked at the evidence

"and we've decided not to award you with DLA."

And then I talked it through with them and said you've got a right to appeal.

You can ask them to look at it again and they said they wanted to go ahead with that.

Sam said, "Don't worry. Get more letters from the doctor.

"Tell all the details, exactly what the situation is now."

Then we apply again.

They were providing additional care for her and it was worth applying for DLA.

She'd got a condition that was clear and they'd got medical supporting evidence.

'Finally, the Department for Work and Pensions agreed with Sam

'that this was a family in desperate need of support.

'They started Disability Living Allowance payments for Kashavi which took the strain off Mum and Dad.'

How would you have coped without Sam, do you think?

What would have happened if Sam wasn't here?

I don't know how to handle the...

how to approach any kind of these things

because he's doing everything for me.

'Unfortunately, the excitement didn't last for long.

'Shortly after receiving the new bed and benefits to help with Kashavi's care,

'her spine condition got considerably worse.'

After more investigations, the paediatrician did more testing

and got worried that there were some issues with her spine after the previous operation.

Very, very quickly, she ended up going into hospital to have some of the rods removed from her spine.

'With Mum now spending all her time at the hospital with Kashavi and Dad working all hours to make ends meet,

'they had to send their new baby to live with relatives.'

Our family is split.

My younger one is in Sri Lanka now.

My husband is in Wallington. He has to go to work, then he gets off,

then he can come here to see us.

We are staying long-term here, nearly two months now.

You're looking and thinking, "How do I make this..."

We have to pay the rent and everything for the house

and here we are staying in a hospital.

'Splitting the family would be unthinkable for most people and yet there's even more bad news.

'When Kashavi leaves hospital, she can't go back to live with Mum and Dad

'as the family's first-floor flat isn't suitable for her needs.

'I'm off to meet Sam to find out what he's been doing to help.'

So Kashavi won't be able to handle stairs or any kind of...?

No. She can't put any weight on her feet, let alone walking,

so being up a flight of steps

to a first-floor flat,

there's no parking outside even if they could get there.

'Sam is helping the family apply for housing benefit,

'so they can get a more suitable property for Kashavi.'

There isn't a family I've met who's more needy.

Then he said, "Don't worry, you will get the place near to your house."

It took the stress away from me.

Sam did lots of things for us.

I didn't need to worry about so many things when I was in the hospital.

'After a few months of phone calls and form-filling, there is some fantastic news.

'Sam has helped them get a ground-floor flat with better access for Kashavi,

'so when she's ready, she can leave hospital and return to her family.

'And the other good news is that because of Kashavi's progress,

'their other daughter Raghavi will be coming home from Sri Lanka to live with Mum and Dad again,

'once they've settled in their new place.'

It feels like time is going very slow.

I know there's not many days, but still I can't wait.

Happy to see her. Yeah, I've missed her a lot.

Now back to our scroungers

where Ealing Council's spotlight of suspicion is burning brightly

on family man Ahmed Mohamedy

who they suspect falsely claimed a decade of housing and council tax benefit payments

that could be in excess of £50,000.

There was an allegation that he owned properties

which hadn't been declared to the Housing Benefit Department

and as such, if he did own them, that would have a bearing on his entitlement to housing benefit.

But the big problem was that he was nowhere to be seen.

As weeks and months went by, the investigator sent out letters to many addresses Ahmed was linked to,

but the trail eventually went cold.

However, there was someone else back on the scene.

Further information came in through the anonymous tip,

indicating that Ahmed was in fact married to his landlady,

they had a joint bank account,

which further warranted our interest in investigating this gentleman.

Not only had the investigators discovered evidence suggesting he owned two properties

and had a business with a healthy income,

they believed the suspected con man was in cahoots with his other half.

More than ever, they needed to question Ahmed to see what he had to say,

but the investigators were none the wiser as to where he'd gone

and what they heard on the grapevine wasn't great.

There was a concern that Ahmed did have a property abroad.

We picked this up from some intelligence we received

and he in fact did come off the benefit register

and one of the addresses we had was in Portugal,

so because of his failure to reply to any of our letters or contact,

there was a concern that he actually had absconded abroad.

You know, in real world investigations, that is sometimes the way it goes.

It's not like Morse or Sherlock where nine times out of ten they get their man in the end.

However, this case was far from over and there was one more twist in the tail.

In 2009, Ahmed contacted the council in respect of he wanted to pay some of the money back.

Right, so why would he want to do that?

That's a good question, why he got back in contact,

but he did and, as a result,

the investigation recommenced.

So let me get this straight.

He claims benefits for ten years, but fails to mention the two properties he owns

and the big stash of cash in the bank.

Then after someone dobs him in, he does a runner for six years.

Now he's back, out of the blue, offering to pay all the money back.

It's not a bad story after all, is it?

So it seems he wasn't living abroad.

Now all the team had to do was get Ahmed to come in for an interview which is simple, right?

After Mohamedy contacted the council, we established an address for him

and it was decided to send an investigation officer to the address

to invite him in for a formal interview under caution

and the investigator went to the address

to hand-deliver the "interview under caution" letter.

When I got there, there were tradesmen in the building

and I believe there was one flat upstairs where I was told the lady lived

and the bottom flat was empty.

It came as like deja vu. Exactly the same had happened some six years earlier.

Yes, it's the same old Ealing comedy once again,

but this time, the fraud investigator was determined not to let him slip away.

Just when he was getting ready to up the stakes,

he got a call from Ahmed's solicitor, saying his client was finally willing to come in to talk.

Would he be ready to confess?

When Mr Mohamedy came in for an interview,

he made various excuses in respect of failing to declare the properties he owned.

He said that the properties were in his name only

and that he didn't have any real benefit from them.

Not an excuse that was going to wash with the investigators as he legally owned the house, end of.

What did he have to say about the business he ran with a £50,000-a-year profit?

He said that he set up Caspian Services with the intention of having a business,

but it never got off the ground and it was essentially a failed venture,

so he saw no relevance in declaring it because he wasn't earning any money from it.

Having waited almost six years for this,

the fraud investigator wasn't going to let him off the hook.

Ahmed may have put on his best poker face,

but this just made the Ealing investigators more determined to prove their man guilty.

They decided to haul his wife Lubica Danovska in for questioning.

After all, the whistle-blower had said she was posing as his landlady

for the bogus housing benefit claims.

She said she was not aware that her husband had claimed housing benefit

or that he was even getting income support.

OK, but she could just be playing out the "innocent wifey" routine,

or at least that's what the fraud investigator thought,

so he revisited the benefit paperwork and something leapt out at him.

I noticed that some of the writing on the documentation

that was submitted to Ealing Council

that was supposedly from the landlord looked the same as her hand-writing

that she provided when she signed the notice that we give to people who we interview.

If true and Ahmed Mohamedy's wife had falsified paperwork

in order for her husband to claim money he wasn't entitled to,

then this could be the key piece of evidence to get the case to court.

Although the writing looked like it was penned by the same hand,

first, they had to prove it.

Cue forensic examiner Kamaljit Mesuria.

The basic principle of hand-writing comparisons

is that no two people write in the same away.

Firstly, I looked at all of the submitted letters which purported to be from the landlord.

I compared them all. I looked at all the characters, the character construction,

the range of variation between the writings.

I then did the same process with Lubica Danovska's reference writing.

The case had been dragging on for over six years and the stakes were now higher than ever.

The team waited anxiously for the result.

My final conclusion on this case was that there was conclusive support

that Danovska was the author of the letters.

The investigators were convinced the game was up for the deceitful duo.

When the case finally wound up in court,

Ahmed Mohamedy had other ideas.

Initially, Ahmed said he would plead guilty to certain counts

if we dropped the charges against his wife.

We felt no, we had this evidence against both of them

and we said we would pursue both of them and we would not take his plea into account.

And that's exactly what they did.

So, for pocketing around 57 grand in housing and council tax benefits,

Ahmed Mohamedy pleaded guilty to six counts of giving false information

and was handed a 12-month suspended sentence and 200 hours' community service.

His wife Lubica Danovska pleaded guilty to three counts of producing false documents

and was given a seven-month suspended sentence and 150 hours' community service.

Mohamedy has already paid back £40,000 and has to pay the rest back this year.

There was no reason for Ahmed to claim.

He had enough money, enough property and didn't need the taxpayer to help pay him any rent at all.

Ahmed and his wife may well have avoided a spell of porridge,

but the long arm of the law was eventually bound to flex its muscles

and that means they have to change their ways

and pay back what they owe to the taxpayer, every penny of it.