Episode 20 Saints and Scroungers

One thing that makes this country great is that, when we find someone in need, we help them out.

A much needed hand up when times are tough.

I felt like a total outsider.

But then, whenever there's cash on offer,

you'll always find someone who wants to steal it.

She was fleecing the department for a lot of money.

But those who cheat the system will often get what's coming to them.

If we find out what you've done is criminal, you could end up in prison.

This is the world of Saints And Scroungers.

Yes, this is Saints And Scroungers.

We uncover people trying to steal money from the taxpaying public.

We also share the stories of society's good Samaritans

who selflessly help those in need.

Fraudsters are brought to justice.

And the saints ensure that those in genuine need get what they're entitled to.

Coming up on today's show.

A deceitful family thought they'd cheat the system.

Nobody likes paying taxes but that's how services are provided in our society.

And a devoted pensioner is given a helping hand.

I wouldn't be getting the allowances without the help.

We're lucky enough to live in a country

where there's a welfare system that helps those in genuine need.

But sometimes those who claim to be in genuine need

are not as needy as they make out.

And some of these people are not paying what they should into the public purse.

Meet the Coffeys. A family struggling to make ends meet.

Father and son, John and Michael Coffey, work together at the family paving business in Wales

but don't bring in a large income.

John's wife Brigid and their two grown-up daughters are unemployed and claiming benefits.

But the family paving business wasn't up to scratch

and father and son Coffey ended up in court for a series of trading standards offences.

Unhappy customers and a trail of shoddy work.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs got wind of this

and decided to have a little dig around themselves.

The case was picked up by criminal investigator Simon De-Kayne.

The initial steps by HMRC,

when we were first made aware of the Trading Standards proceedings,

was to make enquiries within our own records as to the family members

and the business that we were aware of as to whether we had any record.

It was at that stage when, not having found any record,

that the matter was then referred to criminal investigations for us to dig a lot deeper.

So no company records. That means no tax paid.

A team of dedicated fraud inspectors got on the case

and unearthed some suspicious facts when it came to the lifestyle

of this supposedly impoverished family.

One of those fraud investigators wishes to remain anonymous due to the nature of his work.

The Coffey family lived a lifestyle

that would suggest they were earning large amounts of money

to be able to support that lifestyle.

They had a lot of high-value motor vehicles such as Mitsubishis,

Mercedes, that they were driving around in.

Certainly, the main residence in Cardiff

was quite an expensive property.

Yes, it is all sounding a bit fishy.

Surviving on benefits, yet living a life of luxury.

Someone at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs should be able to tell me what was going on.

Let's try HMRC spokesperson Clare Merrills.

How much did John Coffey say

that he and his son combined were earning?

They were claiming that they were earning £250 a week between them.

Right. Did that seem to you odd a little bit?

It's not really that much, is it,

for two people who are living in a very grand house

and driving lots of very nice sporty cars?

Do you as investigators take notice of that sort of stuff?

If somebody is living in a very large house, or the family has very expensive cars,

and the only incoming they're claiming to have is £250 a week,

then that does begin to ring very large alarm bells.

The investigation tried to get permission from the courts

to gain access into the financial dealings of John Coffey.

Granting access to someone's finances

is not a decision the courts take lightly.

And they have to be convinced it's a necessary step.

And what unfolded came as a shock to everyone involved.

The investigators found that there were 29 bank accounts in a variety of names.

Mostly variations or aliases used by the various family members.

And there was also the public front-facing company account,

which obviously showed a small amount of money.

So the company made no money but the family seemed to be, well, not short of it.

Obviously, in this case, the way the Coffey family set up their finances

with 29 different bank accounts,

it was clearly set up as a way to disguise the true level of income

from each particular source and where that income was going.

For a business such as block paving, tarmacing,

you wouldn't expect to see

29 different bank accounts.

You'd expect to see one or two bank accounts at most.

Certainly, with 29 bank accounts, it was rather unusual.

When the investigators began to dig deeper,

they were astounded by the huge volume of transactions

going through these 29 accounts.

A whopping £2 million.

And with this staggering amount of money passing through multiple bank accounts,

well, it adds up to a lot of unpaid tax.

Not the small family business we thought.

So the different companies that John Coffey was using, what did you discover about those?

Well, that there was one company that was registered with us.

They were declaring that they were having a small amount of income through that.

They were using that as their legitimate front to say, "We are registered with you."

"We're doing everything we need to." They were using this company.

Then they were sending invoices to customers from another company that we knew nothing about.

That was the one that they put the £2 million through.

The investigators could tell from the transactions that

much of the money was from customers of the Coffeys who'd had their driveways paved.

So the next thing was to speak to these customers directly to find out how they paid for the work.

The Coffeys offered discounts if the customers agreed to pay in cash.

Those that had paid by cheque were invariably asked

to make the payee of the cheque blank so that that could be filled in at a later date.

We could then see that numerous cheques had been passed through various bank accounts,

not only in any of the company names but also

through accounts held by the daughters.

The son, Michael Coffey, would deal with the customers and he would have a stamp,

which he would use on cheques, which was M Coffey.

A customer would think the money was going into an account controlled by him.

When, in actual fact, a lot of those cheques went through the accounts of Mary Coffey.

Mary Coffey. Coffey's unemployed daughter surviving on the breadline and claiming benefits.

Seems like it wasn't just a father and son operation after all.

All five of them, to varying degrees, were involved in the landscaping business.

The female members of the family, Brigid who is the wife of John,

and their two daughters Helen and Mary Coffey,

were involved in advertising, obtaining advertising

for the driveway business.

And they were also involved in taking customers

to small claims courts when people had refused to pay them.

A lot of money from their business went through their accounts.

Um, they were all claiming benefits

to which they weren't entitled.

Yes, it turns out Mrs Coffey and her two daughters were heavily involved in the family business.

Not penniless or unemployed as they claimed to be.

Had the police unearthed the true extent of this family's fraud

or was it still just the tip of the iceberg?

As the investigation progressed, we knew more about their finances through their bank accounts.

We knew about their property portfolio.

Like a jigsaw, we were able to start to put the pieces together

to see the whole picture as to what they were actually doing by way of making a living

and what they were doing with their finances.

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

The ones in society who help others in genuine need

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

In the UK, almost 10 million people are now over the age of 65.

For many of them, they're able to make the most of their later years staying active and engaged.

But the sudden loss of a life partner

can turn those years into a lonely and difficult time.

That was the case with Jack and Eunice Burgess

who had been married for over 60 years.

When his wife tragically passed away, Jack was left heartbroken.

She was a very brave woman. She was. All her life.

Very popular.

He started to worry that he could lose their home since, as a couple,

they'd relied heavily on financial help and benefits registered in her name.

She was getting attendance allowance, I was getting carer's allowance.

With the couple both in their 80s, the period leading up to Eunice's death had been very challenging.

Eventually, my wife developed osteoporosis.

It's a bone disease and, um, and wasting and, um...

her back became very troublesome indeed.

Such a trouble, in fact, that Eunice struggled to use the stairs

in the house that they'd shared for more than 40 years.

Carers came to help Jack's wife.

But he was frankly unimpressed with the care, which he saw as unreliable.

So he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Their times were so erratic.

And inconvenient.

So I decided I'd do it myself. Which I did.

But it wasn't as easy as he thought.

Parts of the house weren't suitable for two people in their 80s.

It was very difficult for her to get in and out of the bath.

And because I used to help her in and out of the bath for a shower.

Eventually, the physical burden of helping his wife up and down the stairs

and in and out of the bath became too much for Jack.

He contacted the Papworth Trust,

a charity he'd been referred to by his local Citizens Advice Bureau a few years earlier.

Papworth Trust is a disability charity.

It's been in operation as a charity for over 100 years.

It helps disabled people lead independent lives.

Jack came to us in 2008 for help with his windows.

Obviously, he knew about the service.

When his and his wife's health deteriorated, he came back to us for help with

a level access shower for both of them and a stairlift for his wife.

A caseworker went out an assessed all of Jack's needs,

which included applying for attendance allowances for his wife

and other benefits he wasn't currently getting.

One of the benefits Jack didn't realise he was entitled to was a disabled facilities grant.

It's a grant that is used for people living in their own home,

or with somebody living in their home that's disabled,

to improve or adapt their home.

The grant was approved to modify their house

and work began on installing a stairlift and replacing

the dangerous bath with a level access shower.

Right then, life took a tragic turn.

My wife's condition deteriorated.

Unfortunately, it came out that she had breast cancer.

Eunice was admitted to hospital, where doctors discovered the cancer

had spread to her lungs and kidneys and was untreatable.

Before she died, everybody was round.

The grandchildren by her bedside.

She decided that enough was enough.

And she'd suffered enough.

She'd seen everybody, she was happy, and she said she'd had a good life.

And she went to sleep.

She asked for morphine, went to sleep, and that was that.

Sadly, Eunice passed away just days before her 81st birthday,

leaving Jack to cope alone in a house that he desperately wanted to stay in.

It still needed modifications for his own disabilities.

And because the grant had been in in Eunice's name,

after she passed away, the local authority cancelled the application,

throwing Jack's hopes of remaining independent in his own home into jeopardy.

He wanted to remain in the home that he'd been in for 40 years.

So we re-approached the occupational therapist

and, basically, had him reassessed in his own right for the bathroom.

And then we helped him re-apply for the disabled facilities grant in his own name.

It was time for them to get things moving for Jack.

They helped me get the attendance allowance myself.

They went through the application paperwork

and they granted it to me. And it did help a lot

cos it was just over £40 a week.

Which I've found very, very, very helpful.

Jack had worked solidly from the age of 14.

And he was grateful for the grant Southend Council approved in his name.

The work on the level access shower

was also now completed.

By staying in his home that he's been in for 40 years, it makes him healthy and happy.

He can get on with his day-to-day life without

needing carers and be independent.

I wouldn't be getting the allowances I'm getting now without their help,

without their guidance, without them telling me.

Very useful.

And I thank them for their help as regards that.

Without help, it's a pretty safe bet that Jack would've

been moved to a care home. As it is, he's in his own home,

the one he shared with Eunice for all those years.

And he's surrounded by the kind of memories you just can't replace.

Let's leave behind those in genuine need to find the ones who are only out to help themselves.

This case started when John Coffey

appeared in court for trading standards offences

after work was carried out by his paving business.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs got wind of the case but found no records of the company.

No records meant paying no tax.

And after further digging, the HMRC and the police who now led the case,

discovered that the Coffeys were living a life of luxury

in expensive properties, and driving flash cars.

The people at the HMRC believed they were hiding their earnings so as not to pay tax.

You have one company that is up front and legitimate,

that doesn't seem to be making a great deal of money,

and then you have this other huge behemoth

-of a company which is taking in millions.

-Yes.

But you've got to link that back to John Coffey.

They were using different names, using various surnames, on different things they were doing.

They thought they were being clever but we know what we're looking for

with these things and we could link them together.

The investigators carried out surveillance on the Coffey family

and the true extent of their dealings came to light.

The Coffey family had a number of properties that they owned.

It was clear that they were renting out some of these properties

and getting income from that which should have been declared as income for tax purposes.

Again, it never was.

So not only was there undeclared income, but also a heap of property.

They included two farms in Cardiff.

Two houses in Cardiff.

Kennels in Middlesex and plots at a caravan park.

Not a bad portfolio.

One of the farm buildings

in South Wales was initially going to be purchased by Michael Coffey.

But, at the time, he was only 16. So he was not legally able to purchase the property.

So the property was eventually purchased by his father John Coffey.

He then sold the property to John Delaney.

John Delaney. Who is that? And what has he got to do with all of this?

Our investigations led us to believe,

after a short period of time, that John Delaney was John Coffey.

We had to do a lot of work to prove that and, eventually, we discovered

a photocopy of a driving licence in a conveyancing file

for one of the properties that they had purchased

in the name of John Delaney and that driving licence

had a photograph of John Coffey in it.

That was the clincher for us

that John Delaney and John Coffey were the same person.

Buying and selling houses to yourself.

Not only was John Coffey running a dodgy paving company,

he was using false identities to buy properties he already owned.

Why would anyone do that unless they wanted to hide the money and the property

from the authorities?

The bulk of their property portfolio estimated to be

in the region of £3 million.

was purchased by cash and banker's drafts

and none are subject to mortgage.

We're talking a large amount of money.

The kennels was purchased by John Coffey for £500,000.

At the time, he was on site with the estate agent.

He intimated to the estate agent that he had the money in the car

and he could pay for the building there and then.

The estate agent involved actually declined that offer, sensibly.

And John Coffey subsequently purchased the property

with funds from bank accounts in his own name,

in the name of his wife, in the name of Michael Coffey,

in the name of John Delaney and in the name of Helen Coffey.

Let's get this straight. John Coffey was buying and selling properties

from and to himself under different aliases

to hide his assets from the authorities.

The problem the investigating team has got is to prove that this is happening.

It took a lot of work. We had to obtain a series of court orders

on solicitors' firms to obtain conveyancing files

so we could get to the bottom of who owned what,

how the properties were bought, to see what identification was used,

what telephones were used.

They used a different set of solicitors

for practically every transaction they undertook.

So we were visiting quite a lot of solicitors' firms

to obtain that information.

It quickly became clear why owning properties under different names was crucial to the scam.

Helen Coffey was living in a caravan

on the site in Naas Lane, Gloucestershire.

And she was claiming housing benefit from Stroud District Council

in relation to the use of that caravan.

That caravan was owned by a Mr John Delaney,

whom we subsequently discovered was her father. He owned the caravan.

It seemed like the whole family was in on the act,

with wife Brigid claiming benefits for a house she was renting in Cardiff from John Delaney.

John Delaney, who turned out to be her own husband, John Coffey.

Not only were the Coffeys claiming housing benefit on their extensive luxury property portfolio,

they were using these properties to make even more profit in even more underhand ways.

The property in West Drayton in Middlesex

had been turned into accommodation units

effectively for construction workers

who were working at the time on Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

Obviously, there was a lot of workers looking for accommodation around that area at the time,

which the Coffey family exploited.

The more the investigators dug,

the more devious business schemes they found.

In addition to the property portfolio of five properties and the 29 bank accounts,

we were able to ascertain that certainly Michael

had been involved in some form of a car business.

We understand that a number of high-performance vehicles,

Mitsubishis, Mercedes and Audis, were purchased and sold

as part of a sideline business by Michael.

As part of the whole investigation,

it was clear that all of the businesses

that the family were involved in, whether it was rented accommodation,

whether it landscaping and paving, or indeed motor trade,

none of these sources of income were declared by any of the family members.

The investigation had spread nationwide.

And enough was gathered to arrest the conniving Coffey clan

and to conduct a search and seize on their extensive property empire

to find the last parts of the jigsaw

and to put the final nail in the Coffey coffin once and for all.

The search was led by Gloucestershire police.

DWP and HM Revenue and Customs

were present and supporting those search warrants.

In total there were approximately 220 officers from five police forces

across South Wales, Gloucestershire and the Metropolitan Police,

together with the DWP and Revenue and Customs involved.

During the execution of the warrants on the properties,

we found large amounts of evidence.

A lot of evidence of wealth, jewellery,

porcelain, vehicles,

mobile homes, or a mobile home.

We identified further bank accounts that, up until that time, we were not aware of.

And that was an extra £50,000 found in those bank accounts.

The job was done. Anything we got at that stage was a bit of a bonus

because we already had quite a substantial, or would have had a substantial case against them.

While the properties were searched, the Coffeys were taken in for questioning

but were sticking to their story that the family paving business was legit.

During interviews with the police,

family members put propositions forward that the money was from family, from friends,

was being held by other unnamed individuals.

But at no stage during that part of the enquiry did any of them accept

that the vast majority of the money came from their businesses

and thus should have been taxed.

Faced with a mountain of evidence against them, finally

the size of the Coffey fortune emerged.

John and Michael Coffey both admitted that they were making money from doing driveways.

When we challenged them on the amount of money they were making,

they said they were also making money from buying and selling cars,

buying and selling horses within their community

and general wheeling and dealing.

Five members of the Coffey family appeared in court

and pleaded guilty to a total of 20 charges out of 38.

Including tax evasion, using false identities and making false statements to obtain benefits.

At the time of sentencing, the judge commented on their conduct.

He said that the members of the Coffey family in front of him

were not good examples for their community

and brought the reputation of their community down.

And that everybody has to pay taxes.

Nobody likes paying taxes but that's how services are provided in our society.

John Coffey was sentenced to two years nine months in prison

and told to repay the full amount of £450,000 in six months

or face another four years in jail.

His wife Brigid and daughters Helen and Mary

all received a 12 months' suspended sentence.

As did son Michael who, on top of this, was told to pay back £50,000.

And John and Michael were ordered to pay £9,500 each in court costs.

-That's a big sentence.

-Yeah.

-Happy with that?

The man got what he deserved and we're going to get the money we should have had as well.

-So it ends up back in the system doing good.

-Exactly.

They thought the family business would pave the way to a life of luxury.

They got that one wrong.