Aldous/DWP Barbers Saints and Scroungers

Think about it. What would you do if you had a bad run of luck?

The chances are that you'd end up turning to government agencies for a bit of help.

I think the social welfare system is a real blessing.

It shouldn't be taken for granted, it shouldn't be abused.

My husband is disabled. Without the benefits system, we would've found things very difficult.

Here in the UK, millions of us need to ask for help every year

in the form of benefits, legal aid and healthcare.

But there are some people who are out there to cheat the system out of as much as they can.

They're cheating the people who pay into the system, the general public.

How are these people managing to get away with this?

But those people who are trying to get rich from the public purse

are now being sniffed out by investigators

who want to make sure that as much money as possible

is available to those who need it.

This is the world of Saints And Scroungers.

'Coming up, the scroungers who constantly try to fiddle the system.

'One elusive document stands in the way of proving

'that a widow claiming benefits is in fact married.'

What we really needed to prove the marriage had taken place was a copy of the marriage certificate.

'And an ex-footballer claiming he could barely walk

'turns out to have twinkle toes.'

Mr Lawson was regularly seen getting out and in cars,

carrying step ladders and loading paint tins out and in the boot of the car.

'Then there are those people who deserve the public's help.

'We meet the qualified college-leaver

'who struggles to find work in the economic downturn.'

I felt like I was never going to be able to get a job

and I was going to be unemployed for a long time, which was very upsetting.

Losing a partner after years of marriage can be incredibly tough

and almost the last thing you want to think about when you're grieving is paying the bills,

but it still has to be done. That's where benefits can help out,

to get you through the tough times till you're back on your feet again.

But one widow may have grieved a little bit too long.

'Meet Theresa Aldous, a loving grandmother sharing a council house

'with her daughter and grandchild. In 1997,

'her late husband, Mr Aldous, passed away,

'and in 2002, she started claiming benefits from the government and local council.

'Based in the borough of Croydon, London's second most populated borough

'with approximately 324,000 people,

'Theresa Aldous was one of many claiming a little bit of extra help.

'I've come to meet investigations manager David Hogan

'at Croydon Council's fraud department

'to see if there's more to it than meets the eye.'

-Tell me about Theresa Aldous.

-When we examined our records

and looked at this claim, Theresa Aldous was somebody who was

looking to us to help her to cover her rent costs

with housing benefit and her council tax costs. She was also in receipt of widows' pension,

which she was receiving from the Department for Work and Pensions.

This all sounds perfectly reasonable, but I take it it's not.

An anonymous tip-off said she hadn't lived at the property for nearly five years

and that she had, in fact, remarried a Mr Martin and was living with him in his house.

'If the tip-off was true,

'it meant Aldous was committing two separate offences.

'Firstly, if she'd been living in Richard Martin's home since 2002,

'she'd been receiving housing benefit for the Aldous family home

'that she was not entitled to.

'Secondly, if four years earlier she allegedly married Richard Martin,

'who was in full-time employment, she would not have been entitled

'to the widows' pension she applied for in June 2002.

'If true, these were massive offences.

'So on 13th June 2006,

'David sent some colleagues to pay Aldous a visit.'

She told the investigators that she wasn't married to Mr Martin,

that they were just friends. She went on to say that

she does occasionally stay at his house, but that's to look after his daughter,

because Mr Martin wasn't very well.

'Theresa Aldous had been deaf since childhood,

'so the investigators made sure she understood everything being alleged,

'but Aldous was adamant that the fraud team had been given the wrong information.'

We decided to close the case because there wasn't sufficient evidence to support the tip-off,

but also, Aldous had made a written statement to us

that everything that she had told us at that point was true.

'Satisfied with the results, the team focused on other cases.

'But just over a year later, they received a second anonymous tip-off.

'The information was handed to anti-fraud officer Gail Campbell,

'who reopened the case.'

When we received a second tip-off, there was the same allegation,

that the marriage had taken place, but there was more information

that the partner had died outside the UK

and it gave us the details of the undertaker that was to deal with the funeral arrangements.

'The second tip-off alleged that Theresa Aldous and Richard Martin

'married on the Greek island of Crete in June 2002.

'But now it appeared that, sadly, Mr Martin had also died on the island

'in August 2006.

'Lots of allegations but not a lot of evidence.

'So Gail got in touch with the UK-based undertaker

'to see if there was any paperwork that might reveal Richard Martin's next of kin.'

The file contained a copy of the Greek death certificate,

the date of death was confirmed,

and with that death certificate, there were other documents

that were necessary for the body to be returned to the UK.

'When Gail inspected the documents more closely,

'she noticed that they'd been signed by a Theresa Martin,

'who also used Richard Martin's address as her own.

'Suspicious. But it still didn't prove that it was Aldous

'until Gail recognised a similarity to her council claims.'

The handwriting on the forms at the undertaker's

was compared to the handwriting that we saw on the benefit forms,

and in my opinion, it was the same handwriting.

The signatures were very similar, even though the names were different.

'So, we have Theresa Aldous, whose husband, Mr Aldous,

'passed away in 1997.

'She's claiming widows' pension as well as housing and council tax benefits

'to help her pay for the Aldous family home.

'But now we also have Theresa Martin

'who'd allegedly been married to and lived with Richard Martin

'since June 2002

'and recently returned his body to the UK

'after he passed away in Crete in August 2006.

'If Aldous and Martin were the same woman,

'then she'd lost two husbands in nine years,

'but this doesn't explain why she'd been claiming nearly £15,000 of widows' pension

'from the Department for Work and Pensions

'or nearly £15,000 worth of housing benefits

'from Croydon since 2002.

'So now the authorities thought Mrs Aldous was married to Richard Martin,

'Gail needed hard evidence to confirm they were, in fact, the same person.'

What we really needed to prove the marriage had taken place

was a copy of the marriage certificate, and that would be absolute proof

that the marriage had taken place and then we could progress the investigation.

'So, the quest was on to find a key piece of evidence in a foreign country.

'Gail had her work cut out.'

I contacted the Passport and Documents Service Group

at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

and asked their advice as to how we can get a copy of the certificate.

They wrote back to me and suggested I tried another agency.

I then wrote to the other agency and they told me that they could help

but they needed to know exactly where the marriage took place on Crete,

and once I can get that information, they should be able to get me a copy of the certificate.

'Trying to find the crucial marriage certificate was no easy matter.'

I was a bit concerned that we would never find proof

that the marriage had taken place. I made further enquiries

with people that knew the couple,

erm, anybody that I thought might have the information,

and eventually the information came to light

and we were able then to make the enquiry to the Foreign Office.

'Now Gail had the location in Crete,

'she was one step closer to getting the important marriage certificate.

'But at the same time, she was also stepping into a bureaucratic process

'that would cross borders.'

They told me what I needed to do.

It involved filling in a lengthy form

and they asked me for a fee of £145.

Once I submitted that, there was no guarantee

that they'd be able to track the marriage certificate

and they said I'd need to wait until they got back in touch with me.

'And that was all they could do, wait.'

So, how crucial a piece of evidence was the marriage certificate for you?

Well, this was the one thing that was critical in proving that Theresa Aldous and Theresa Martin

were in fact the same person.

It would've been hard going in court without that.

OK. And as a team, you're sitting here

knowing that there's one piece of evidence that you need that you won't necessarily get.

Yeah, a lot of work had gone into this investigation

and it is a very tense wait at times like this

where you're waiting for the one critical piece of evidence to come in.

'Without the marriage certificate, the team just didn't have a strong enough case.

'And as we may see later, getting their hands on it wasn't going to be easy.'

There was no evidence anywhere that this marriage had taken place.

'For now, though, it's time to say goodbye to the scroungers

'that are trying to steal from the state's safety net

'and say hello to those we call our saints, people who do everything they can

'to make sure others in need of help and struggling to get their lives on track

'get all the support they need.'

For young people, it's supposed to be so straightforward.

All you do is this. You study hard, you get your qualifications

and then, as they say, the world is your oyster.

Unfortunately, for some people, it doesn't work out like that

and no matter how hard they graft and how determined they are,

it can seem like the whole world is against them.

'When 20-year-old Jamie-Leigh Emmonds left secondary school,

'she applied for and was accepted onto a two-year NVQ college course in ladies' hairdressing.

'But it turned out, once she started to look for work,

'that her chances were drastically reduced

'cos she'd had no training in cutting men's hair.'

Well, I thought that was the end for the hairdressing career.

I didn't think I was going to be able to get a job in a salon at all

because I had no clue how to do men's hairdressing.

So it was a bit upsetting.

'Yes, a disappointment for a young woman who'd known for many years

'that all she wanted to be was a stylist,

'as her mum Zoe knew too well.'

Jamie-Leigh has always wanted to be a hairdresser

since she was a little girl and used to do her sister's hair,

straightening my hair, doing plaits,

trying new hairstyles out, backcombing,

just basically messing about with hair all the time when she was growing up.

'Like many college leavers,

'Jamie-Leigh's motivation for starting her career

'was mainly to do with gaining her independence.'

I really wanted to go and earn my own money because I wanted to do things for myself,

like go away on my own, get my own house eventually, get my own shop eventually,

do everything on my own, instead of falling back on my parents.

'And after really buckling down at college and getting her qualifications,

'the situation she found herself in now, well, it was a bit of a fix.'

Jamie-Leigh was very frustrated when she couldn't get work.

She's always been a busy person

and she became quite mardy and withdrawn in herself.

And obviously, when there was no work for her, she just used to sit at home

and watch TV and do nothing with herself.

'Jamie-Leigh went to her local job centre

'and was advised to train in barbering. But at the time, there were no government-funded schemes

'and she couldn't afford the expensive independent courses.

'Like many young people who leave college with qualifications,

'Jamie-Leigh found herself unemployable in the field she'd trained in.

'And it's a scenario that employment skills manager Marc Malloy

'has seen too often in recent years.'

It's tough out there at the moment for young people.

There's high expectations of the type of role they want to go into

and the salary they want to earn and there just aren't those jobs for them,

which leads them to be demotivated and to be depressed.

When young people are at college or in an educational institution,

they need to be given the basic score, what it means to apply for a job,

and they need to have realistic expectations of what is out there for them.

'And Jamie-Leigh's not alone.

'At the beginning of 2013, nearly a million young people were unemployed.

'So what are you supposed to do?'

I think the first place any young person should go to for advice

is their education provider or even their local job centre,

and failing that, to go online, there are a variety of sources out there

that are all geared to helping people make the next step

towards either education or employment.

'With her goal of becoming a hairdresser now seemingly unachievable,

'Jamie-Leigh decided to take any old job she could.'

I first started working in a shop and I was doing till work,

stacking shelves, cleaning,

and then I got another job in a bar,

still cleaning, collecting glasses.

While I was still doing these two jobs,

I was still going to the job centre

to ask them about barber courses that were available,

but they didn't really help me much.

There wasn't any barbering courses going in Doncaster.

So I carried on with these two jobs

until something else came available.

'But she wasn't about to give up on her career,

'so Jamie-Leigh contacted local salons

'in the hope of getting practice in cutting men's hair.'

I found one shop what let me go there two days a week

to do men's barbering and to gain more experience on men's barbering.

I offered them that I would go voluntary,

so they didn't have to pay me for anything I did,

it was just to gain work experience.

'However, the shop was lacking one crucial element.

'Lots of male customers.'

In that shop, there wasn't many men what came in for their hair doing,

or women, it wasn't a very busy salon,

so I thought I wanted something more busier to get my work experience done.

'After three weeks and hardly any training,

'Jamie-Leigh cut her losses and returned to the job centre.

'She was looking for any old job again,

'but in the meantime, like nearly 400,000 other young people in the UK,

'she claimed the benefit she was entitled to.'

I did actually feel I was going to be on the Jobseeker's forever.

I didn't feel like I was going to be able to get a job anywhere else.

All I did want to do was hairdressing. I tried my hardest to get a job in a salon.

'Despite her efforts and determination,

'there just wasn't a job out there.

'With 21 percent of 16 to 24-year-olds struggling to find work,

'Jamie-Leigh's career goals were drifting further and further away.'

We meet young people all the time, applying away,

getting interviews, keep getting those knockbacks,

not through their fault, just through the sheer volume of people that are applying.

We know it's easy for us to sit here and say, "Keep battling away, a door's going to open"

but everybody's only human and confidence is going to get knocked. It is a tough labour market.

'A frustrated Jamie-Leigh wanted to get off Jobseeker's Allowance

'and start making a living in the hair industry.

'It's difficult times like this when you really need a mate.'

I phoned my friend up, cos I was gutted about not getting a job,

and she actually told me there was jobs in York available doing hairdressing.

'So now there was the potential to try and get work hair-styling,

'but it would mean moving to York, away from her family

'and the home she'd lived in all her life.'

It was a big decision for me to make.

I had to sit down with my mum and dad and say,

"This is the only way I'm going to get a job."

I was absolutely devastated, my little girl going off to pastures new.

I really didn't want her to go and I was very scared

cos she was only 18 years old,

but I knew there was nothing in Doncaster for her.

It was the most upsetting thing I've had to do is leave my mum and dad.

I did not have a choice because there wasn't any jobs going where my mum and dad live.

So if I wanted a job then I had to do something about it.

'Despite the emotional wrench of leaving her family and friends in Doncaster,

'Jamie-Leigh left for York.

'She moved in with a friend and her family

'and hoped to get a hairdressing job quickly so she could contribute to the household bills.'

When I moved up here, I did think I was going to get a job straight away,

but I didn't. It was horrible having to go to the job centre to find a job. It wasn't nice.

Within any town or city, you always think, you know, there is no work for them to do,

and I'd rather her be at home not working than be in a strange city.

Talk about frustrating. All you want to do is earn a wage

and pay your own way. On top of that, you've gained a qualification

and moved away from the town where you've lived your whole life

to try and find work.

But even though you've moved all that distance,

you still can't seem to find a job.

'Before too long, Jamie-Leigh's hopes of becoming a hairdresser

'had turned into a five-to-ten-hour-a-week

'part-time nightmare in another high-street retailer.

'In fact, the hours were so few, she had to claim Jobseeker's Allowance again.'

I felt like I was never going to be able to get a job

and I was going to be unemployed for a long time, which was very upsetting.

'But Jamie-Leigh had faced a lot of challenges and she wasn't about to give up yet.

'She decided to stick it out in York.'

She had some low moods, but she's a determined person so I knew she wouldn't give up.

'Unlike a lot of people, Jamie-Leigh had decided what she wanted to be in life from a very early age.

'She'd gone to college and got the qualification

'she thought she needed to achieve that.

'But when she went into the market, she found she was unemployable.

'Jamie-Leigh had even moved away from home to achieve her goals.

'But now, after a further six months of claiming Jobseeker's,

'she was referred to Bruce Murray, who was quickly becoming her last chance of help.'

I'm a personal advisor. I deal with customers under 25

that have become eligible for the new Job Centre Plus Wage Incentive.

'As we'll find out later,

'Bruce had a very different approach

'to getting Jamie-Leigh the training she needed.

'Now, from those people who really need the help of the state

'to people who set out to abuse the system.'

Here in the UK, the Department for Work and Pensions

has a safety net in place to help those

who are genuinely diagnosed with an illness or disability.

You could end up with a blue badge to help you get around,

a much-needed cash injection or even home help, and that's only fair.

But what isn't fair is when some people

try to use that safety net to systematically scam

you and I, the taxpayer.

'One man claiming these benefits was 52-year-old Norman Lawson.

'He was injured badly during a football match in 1992,

'and as a result, surgeons had to remove part of his lower leg.

'Dr Javid Abdelmoneim is an independent medical expert

'with experience of treating injuries like Lawson's.'

The worst-case scenario for a lower leg in jury in football

could be an open fracture of the limb

which is where the bones actually break and rip through the skin

and are exposed to the environment. That requires complicated reconstructive surgery

to avoid infection and skin-grafting.

Rehabilitation after a leg injury that required surgery,

you could expect to spend about six to eight weeks perhaps in plaster

and need an extended period of physiotherapy thereafter.

'The injury left Lawson barely able to walk

'and he began claiming Incapacity Benefit

'and Disability Living Allowance at the higher rate,

'worth £14,000 over the years.'

Disability benefits are provided based on two facets,

your care needs and your mobility needs.

'Lawson was claiming a higher rate of mobility

'because he said he couldn't walk without the use of a stick

'and would become very breathless when he tried.'

Disability benefits are vital in allowing a person to perform

normal, functional tasks of daily living, walking and care.

If they were not available, that person would be left in a situation

where they could not cope, couldn't look after themselves on the most basic level,

being unable to prepare a meal, go to the toilet and walk.

That safety net is very important.

'Fair enough. So why, in 2012,

'did fraud investigator Jennifer Petrie

'become suspicious of Norman Lawson?'

We first came across Mr Lawson

when investigating another allegation

and identified that Mr Lawson was working

as a painter and decorator

through a company in Forfar.

Subsequent checks of the department records

reveal that there was only one person of that name and age

called Norman Lawson in the Dundee area.

'So, the fraud team had pinpointed their man,

'but they had to prove that he was in fact mobile and able to work.'

We decided that the only way to prove whether or not

Mr Lawson's disability was as severe as he was stating

was to carry out some surveillance.

'The team started working undercover

'and unbeknown to Lawson, were tracking his movements

'over a one-month period.'

Mr Lawson was regularly seen getting out and in cars,

carrying step ladders and loading paint tins

out and in the boot of the car. He was also seen

getting out and in of painters' white overalls quite easily.

'Our independent doctor is used to treating injuries like Mr Lawson's

'and we've asked him to comment on the secret surveillance footage.'

He's moving both his legs with normal power, normal coordination and speed.

There doesn't seem to be any restriction to his movement at all.

The exercise that he's going to undertake

in that he's doing painting and decorating

could be considered to be moderately strenuous

for someone with a debilitating leg injury.

'Unbelievable. He's a fully-functioning tradesman

'but he's been claiming that he can barely walk.

'It's now time for the fraud investigators

'to gather all of their evidence.'

Following the surveillance, we then gathered further witness statements

and witness testimony from some of the houses

that Mr Lawson had visited to carry out the painting and decorating.

This then provided us with sufficient evidence

to submit the case to the decision maker for a decision on the benefit

and calculation of the over-payments.

'Lawson had started painting and decorating in 2004

'and the authorities decided that he'd claimed over £14,000

'that he was not entitled to.

'Jennifer decided it was time for a face-to-face meeting.'

On receipt of the over-payment calculation,

we then invited Mr Lawson in for an interview under caution.

At the interview under caution, Mr Lawson admitted that he knew

that he should report changes of circumstances,

including any work that he had carried out.

He denied that he had carried out any work at all.

'But the team weren't about to be swindled

'and had the surveillance footage up their sleeve.

'Lawson couldn't argue with that and he had to change his plea.'

He did admit that he had carried out this work

and that his health condition had improved and he had failed to report this.

'It was exactly the result Jennifer was hoping for

'and it meant the fraud team could prepare for court.

'The date was set for April 2013.

'But what would be the outcome of the trial?'

At the final court appearance, Mr Lawson pleaded guilty.

He was then sentenced to a six-month custodial sentence.

Prior to the final court appearance,

Mr Lawson had started to repay his overpayment of benefit.

'But the game was up for Lawson.

'This lot don't mess around, you know?'

All benefit fraud is stealing from the taxpayer.

And people who commit benefit fraud will be caught.

'If you're thinking about faking disability and defrauding the authorities,

'it's worth thinking twice because there could be a prison sentence at the end of it.

'It's time to say goodbye to the fiddling fraudsters

'and welcome back those people who need the public's help the most.

'After getting a qualification at college in ladies' hairdressing,

'Jamie-Leigh struggled to find work in her hometown of Doncaster

'cos she had no experience of cutting men's hair.

'In the hope of getting a job, she moved to York,

'but instead of finding hairdressing work, she spent the next six months needing income support.'

I came to York to obviously get a job in a salon

but couldn't get one, so I got a job in a shop doing ten hours a week.

Life was a bit difficult at that point.

'Because Jamie-Leigh had been on benefits in York for over six months

'she became eligible to apply for a new scheme,

'aimed at getting young people into work.

'And her job centre advisor, Bruce Murray, was determined to make it happen.'

Bruce is a nice, funny guy. I get along with him really well.

But he pushed me so hard to find a job that I liked going to see him to find work.

When I first met Jamie, it's fair to say, like many of our customers,

she was in that vicious circle of really wanting to work,

was trying really hard, but the lack of experience was counting against her, really.

There's no doubt, her confidence was getting knocked. She was getting increasingly fed up, really.

We had to sort of build up her confidence, and the Wage Incentive helps us do that.

'With the Wage Incentive Scheme at his disposal,

'Bruce could come up with a plan for Jamie-Leigh

'that would hopefully make her more employable.'

Bruce's idea was simple.

He'd get her a spot as an apprentice at a male hairdressers.

They would benefit from the Wage Incentive Scheme

and she would pick up the experience she so desperately needed.

'The Wage Incentive was introduced in April 2012,

'and is an initiative designed to help young people get off benefits and into full-time work.

'The job centre pays £2,275

'to employers who take on unemployed workers

'who've been looking for work for over six months

'and are between the ages of 18 to 24.

'They also have to work 30 hours or more a week for a six-month period.

'The incentive helps small businesses pay wages

'and helps young workers get the experience they need.'

When I first met Jamie, it became apparent that it'd be really nice

if we could use the qualification she gained to try and get her a job in a barbers or a hairdressers.

So we looked at her CV, made sure that was up to date.

And then we went through all the information we had on available vacancies.

As luck would have it, there was a job in a barbers shop nearby.

'It was a great opportunity for Jamie-Leigh.'

Getting a job in the barbers would mean that I had the training behind me forever,

and then eventually I could go back into doing ladies, as well.

Barbering is the next best thing to actually being a hairdresser.

So when she told me that she'd got this opportunity,

I told her to grab it with both hands.

'With so much competition for jobs among college leavers,

'Jamie-Leigh knew she had to act quickly.'

Jamie came to the job centre, suited and booted, CV modified,

and we decided we were going to go together to the barbers shop.

When I first went to the barbers,

Bruce introduced himself from the job centre

and introduced me as a candidate for the Wage Incentive Scheme.

He told the man who ran the barbers and the guy who was working there

all about the Wage Incentive. We gave our details

and the boss said he would have a chat with his work colleagues

and see if I was capable for the job

and that he'd give me a ring back the same day. When I left, I was very nervous,

if I was going to get a phone call back saying "Yes," or a phone call back saying "No."

'The assistant manager at the barbers was Chris Panayiotou.'

Jamie-Leigh gave a very good first impression.

Her enthusiasm, you could tell in the way she presented herself

that she really wanted to be a barber, that it wasn't just another day out looking for a job,

that she came in here with that kind of enthusiasm

that says, "You should take me on, I'm ready, I'm willing to work."

'A very nervous Jamie-Leigh got a phone call later that day.

'And it was good news.'

That was like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Because I'd actually found a job I really wanted to do and I felt so happy.

I phoned my mum up and my mum was screaming down the phone saying, "Well done".

Oh, I was over the moon and Jamie-Leigh was also over the moon

that she'd finally got a job in something that she really had a passion for.

'She now had an opportunity to learn how to cut men's hair,

'the problem that had held her back from getting a job in the first place.

'But in order to get the training she needed,

'Jamie-Leigh would have to start at the bottom and work her way up.'

An apprentice's job in the barber shop is to do first of all the most basic jobs.

Sweeping up, mopping up,

making teas and coffees and making sure the customers are happy and attended to,

and even while they're waiting, she can make them feel comfortable and welcome.

And then to learn to cut hair, the first step is just to watch,

and to concentrate from the start of the haircut, the middle of the cut, to the end of the cut,

and after that, it's to start practising.

As the time goes on, I've been standing and watching,

they've been talking me through step-by-step how to do a haircut.

And now I'm practising myself on different clients.

'And for Chris, employee Jamie-Leigh

'was helping his business to grow.'

In the economic climate that we live in, it can be difficult

to find staff and to find the right staff.

So the Wage Incentive Scheme is a massive help, really.

They pay for the apprentice to be here. It's a very big help for any business.

It's a win-win situation. Jamie-Leigh gets to learn a trade, we financially get help

from the Wage Incentive Scheme to have her here, and so everybody's a winner.

'The new job meant Jamie-Leigh was now earning a wage at the barbers

'and no longer needed to claim Jobseeker's Allowance.'

People like Jamie-Leigh make our job worthwhile, really.

It's lovely when you see somebody who really wants a job, who's trying really hard.

To be in that position and to be able to put the pieces into place

to help her out and get a successful outcome,

it's quite a privileged position, really, and sometimes we maybe forget that.

'But Jamie-Leigh hasn't forgotten just who gave her the opportunity to follow her dreams.'

Thank you very much, Bruce, for all the hard work you've done in getting me my job.

'So Jamie-Leigh's building on her work experience,

'adding to her skills and making herself more employable.'

Jamie-Leigh's doing really well. She was part of the team straight away.

She can have a bit of banter, she can laugh and joke with us,

and in the more serious moments when we're explaining to her how to cut hair,

she's on the ball, and it comes almost second nature to her,

obviously, because she's got a history in hairdressing.

'Jamie-Leigh's family have witnessed her struggle first-hand

'and they are impressed.'

I'm very proud of her. She's done extremely well.

She's one in a million.

'Despite all the ups and downs,

'Jamie-Leigh is still an ambitious young girl with big dreams.

'And she's got a long way to go.'

When I finish this barber course, I want to work in a hairdressers.

Obviously, then I can build my clients up.

But then I really do want to have my own business in the future.

It would make me really happy. It's very important to work hard.

You have to work hard to get far in life.

And if you don't work hard, you have nothing.

For Jamie-Leigh, it was the classic catch-22 situation.

She needed the experience to get the job,

but without the job, she couldn't get the experience.

Thanks to the Wage Incentive Scheme, she ended up picking up those skills

which hopefully will give her a successful career as a hairdresser.

Who knows, one day she might even have her own salon.

'Right, from feel good to real greed.

'Time to revisit the scroungers who are ripping off the taxpayer.

'In Croydon, Surrey, the fraud investigation team are on the case of Theresa Aldous, a widow,

'who, since 2002, had received nearly £15,000 worth of widows' pension from the government

'and nearly £15,000 of housing benefits from Croydon Council.

'But after two anonymous tip-offs,

'the team began to suspect that Mrs Aldous was, in fact, Mrs Martin,

'as allegations suggested she'd married for a second time in 2002

'but then lost her new husband, Richard Martin,

'when he passed away in Crete four years later.

'To make the case watertight,

'fraud investigator Gail Campbell needed to get hold of a Greek marriage certificate

'that would prove that five years after her previous husband died,

'Aldous remarried Richard Martin and moved into his home

'but continued to claim a widows' pension and benefits

'to pay for a house that her daughter lived in.'

When we try to get information from a foreign authority, it's very hit and miss.

Sometimes you write to them and they don't even respond at all.

You don't know if you've written to the correct person,

the correct agency, or they've read it and thought, "I'm not interested."

You're constantly chasing them.

'But having contacted the correct agencies and completed the relevant paperwork,

'Gail was prepared to play a waiting game for a crucial piece of evidence.

'And two months later, her patience paid off.'

When the letter came, it had inside it the marriage certificate.

But the certificate was in Greek.

So none of us in the office were able to speak Greek,

and for a moment, it was a bit, "Mm, is this what we're looking for?"

With the certificate was a letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

to confirm that they had found the certificate of marriage

and that that was a true copy of the certificate.

So we didn't need to then get anybody to look at it and confirm that for us.

'It was a great result for the team who'd been holding out for this key piece of evidence.

'It proved that Aldous had failed to change her circumstances

'with both the Department for Work and Pensions, who provided her widows' pension,

'and Croydon Council, who subsidised her housing.

'On 6th November 2007,

'Gail brought Aldous in for an interview under caution.

'It wasn't exactly smooth sailing.'

The first interview didn't really result in us getting very much information from Theresa,

although she was fully aware by that time of why we needed to talk to her.

She came with a solicitor and her sister.

The interview with Theresa was slightly different

to any of the interviews I've ever done before with anybody else

because Theresa is deaf.

'The interview took longer than most because Gail had to make sure

'that Aldous understood everything the investigators were telling her.

'They'd also agreed to share all their evidence

'with Aldous's legal representative before they started questioning.

'This included new information that Aldous had hired a solicitor

'to activate probate for the estate of Richard Martin,

'declaring herself his widow.'

Halfway through the interview, Theresa then became upset

and it was suggested that the interview should be terminated and then rescheduled.

'Gail tried to reschedule a second interview with Aldous's solicitor

'who said she'd better be quick because their client was jetting off on holiday to Crete that weekend.

'Yeah, it's all right for some.

'Gail made sure she squeezed Aldous into her busy schedule

'and grilled her about why she hadn't told the authorities that she'd remarried.'

She said her husband told her he would tell all the departments

that needed to know about the marriage and that included

Department for Work and Pensions and the council.

Apparently he was going to tell these departments because she's deaf.

Throughout the lengthy interview, she didn't really admit to very much

but she did admit that a ceremony had taken place in Crete.

She did say it was a form of wedding

but it wasn't something that was recognised in the UK.

We had the evidence that it was a legitimate wedding.

We had the certificate and it was authenticated by the authorities,

so that was enough evidence for us

to have her benefit cancelled back to the date of marriage.

'Aldous also admitted she'd failed to declare a private pension that belonged to Richard Martin

'and paid her £146 a month in 2010,

'as well as the bank account it was paid into.

'This would've meant she was not entitled to the benefit she was claiming.

'Richard Martin was never implicated in any of these scams,

'but the Croydon fraud team had all they needed for a prosecution of Theresa Aldous.

'Since 2002, she'd fraudulently claimed

'over £25,000 in housing benefit,

'almost £3,000 of council tax benefit

'and nearly £15,000 worth of widows' pension.

'That's almost a massive £43,000.

'On 25th April 2012 at Croydon Crown Court,

'Theresa Aldous pleaded not guilty to the following four charges.

'She was found guilty of all four charges

'and sent down for a six-month prison sentence.'

So Croydon has its conviction, but I'm sensing there's more for you to do.

Well, it was interesting. During the course of the investigation,

Gail had heard some rumours

that Aldous had inherited some money.

OK. So if it's true that there was something she hadn't declared,

how do you go about chasing that down?

What I decided to do was get our financial investigator

to look at it and see if there was any truth in this.

'Step forward Zoe Neale, a Croydon financial investigator

'who continued to delve into Aldous's finances

'while she was serving her prison sentence.'

In a case like Theresa Aldous,

Gail and I would work together, but she's looking purely at the benefit offences

and I'm looking not just at the benefit, but also at the money.

I'm looking at where does the money come from? Where does the money go to?

I'm looking for any unexplained cash deposits,

any unexplained cash withdrawals.

I'm looking for, does she have mortgages, foreign transactions,

is she using a money service bureau to move money about?

I'm looking for what has she gained? Has she got a house? Has she got a car?

Has she been buying jewellery?

Anything which would lead me to think she's been disposing either of her assets

or trying to trace what has she gained as a result of her offending?

'Zoe discovered that Aldous had received two instalments of inheritance from Richard Martin

'which totalled £43,000.

'By 2012, six years after his death,

'Aldous only had £19,000 left, although she admitted in court

'to spending £15,000 on her Crete wedding.

'After Aldous's sentencing, Croydon Council issued a confiscation order

'under the Proceeds of Crime Act for £19,000,

'the amount of inheritance Aldous had left.

'She was given six months to pay or she faced going back to prison.'

At the confiscation hearing, the judge specifically said to her

and to her barrister, "How can she repay the money?"

And they specifically said the family would repay the money.

'However, three months after the deadline, in June 2013,

'the Croydon investigators were back at court.'

Today we're at Westminster Magistrates Court.

We're here for an enforcement hearing about Theresa Martin, also known as Theresa Aldous.

In September last year, she was due to pay a confiscation order of £19,000.

However, we've been informed she hasn't repaid the money.

So we're here today for an enforcement hearing

for her to explain to the court why this has not been paid.

The best outcome would be if they pay the money today.

The worst case scenario is she doesn't turn up,

we then have to speak to somebody about trying to trace her.

'Theresa Aldous did turn up to the hearing.

'But the Croydon investigators didn't get the outcome they were hoping for.'

The court asked why she's not made any effort to repay the £19,000 she owes.

Erm, and the defence lawyer said that's because she doesn't have the money.

'A disappointing result for the team,

'but they remain confident that one way or another

'justice will be served.'

At the next hearing, if she has still not paid anything

or has made very limited efforts to repay,

the most viable alternative is for her to serve her default sentence,

which is nine months in prison.

And while she's in prison, the debt still keeps accruing,

and interest accrues, so when she comes out of prison,

she'll still owe us the money, plus the interest on top.

She's done the crime and now, unless she pays the money back,

she could end up doing even more time.

As to the investigators at Croydon Council, well, they're like a dog with a bone,

trying to claw back every single penny that Theresa Aldous owes

so it can go back where it belongs, in the public pot.

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