Algohar/The Canaan Trust/Gilhooley Saints and Scroungers

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

The chances are 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 have 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 health care.

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 that are out to beat the system.

A jet-setting mystic who claimed benefits despite earning pennies from heaven.

There were payments being made in foreign currency including rupees, US dollars and euros in France.

And those who rightly deserve a helping hand.

The man who found himself homeless after the break-up of his marriage.

I was totally devastated

to the point where I found it hard to cope with life.

I just had to be on my own.

Being the sole breadwinner in any family is a huge responsibility,

but at least you can take pride in the fact that you're putting food on the table

and a roof over your family's head.

Imagine the feeling, then, when you know you can't provide

because you can't work because you're just too ill.

For most of us, it would be hugely demoralising.

But for a benefit cheat, it's a big opportunity.

Meet married father-of-three Younus AlGohar.

He's unfortunately been unemployed since 1999 due to suffering severe migraines.

He's been reliant on government support to help him and his family.

The family lived in rented accommodation in Kingswood,

a leafy, affluent suburb 18 miles south of London

and he was helped out by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.

Julian Ellacott is a local councillor there.

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council is responsibility for paying a number of benefits.

Housing benefit, council tax benefit in particular.

And we pay those to people in need of them,

mainly unemployed, people on low incomes.

People just like Younus AlGohar.

Younus AlGohar was claiming housing benefit and council tax benefit

from Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.

He was also claiming income support from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Sounds fair enough. But when AlGohar moved,

the landlord of his new property got in touch with the council

and an investigation kicked off.

The case landed on the desk of one of the council's fraud investigators

who, due to the nature of his work, has asked to remain anonymous.

It's common practice for the landlord of a property

to ring up the council and inform them that a new tenant has moved in

because the tenant then becomes liable for the council tax bill.

Younus AlGohar's landlord phoned to inform the council of the tenancy conditions.

It transpired through that initial phone call

that the landlord was charging nearly double the amount Younus AlGohar was claiming.

What was going on?

The fraud team decided to take a look at AlGohar's original claims.

As part of the investigation, I contacted the letting agents for the property in Kingswood

and asked them to provide a copy of the genuine tenancy agreement.

The agreement they provided me with showed that the rented amount was 2,700 a month.

However, the agreement that AlGohar provided to the council

stated that his rent was only £1,400 per month.

So, why was AlGohar paying nearly twice the amount of rent he was claiming?

The amount of extra money AlGohar was forking out to his landlord

didn't sit well with someone who was supposedly reliant on income support.

The investigators widened their search.

It's common practice to do what's called open source intelligence searching,

which is basically putting a name into an internet website

and searching to see what comes up.

On this occasion, I found that Younus AlGohar had quite a high profile,

a public presence on the internet

as well as his own website.

All of which were linking him to an organisation called the Messiah Foundation International.

From the website, there were lots of pictures of Younus AlGohar in various situations.

I compared these pictures to what we already held on the benefit claim form from his passport

and from that I realised that they were the same person.

Referred to online as "His Holiness",

and claiming to be a mystic, writer and poet,

AlGohar is, in fact, the chief executive of The Messiah Foundation,

whose website claims to "promote divine love"

and "the reduction of hatred", all of which sounds marvellous.

The investigator carried on searching

and discovered AlGohar had previously claimed housing benefit

for a house just five miles away in Coulsdon.

From looking at the claim paperwork for Coulsdon, I discovered a pattern with what happened in Kingswood.

There were discrepancies in the rental amounts in the tenancy conditions

and the agreement that had been provided to the council.

So, another claim. This time the landlord charged AlGohar £2,800 per month

and again he was only claiming just over half the amount.

So where was all the extra cash coming from?

It appeared from the information we'd got so far

that Younus AlGohar was renting quite expensive properties,

quite luxurious properties,

and then declaring to the council that the rent was significantly lower

than what he was actually paying.

So that's two properties claimed for in the same way.

A pattern was definitely emerging,

but so far, it made no sense.

Investigators kept digging and found that another property had been claimed for in much the same way

in the nearby borough of Bromley.

The property was in the town of Keston, 15 miles away.

The investigation was getting even wider.

It is important for councils to work together,

mainly because people can obviously move around from one area to another

and therefore they will claim benefits from different councils

over a period of time.

So the next stage was to contact them

to verify that their claim was genuine as well.

When I got in touch with my counterpart at the London Borough of Bromley,

they established that the same pattern had been followed with that claim as well.

Yet another property rented in the same way.

Younus AlGohar was claiming £1,600 per calendar month

but was actually paying £2,850. The sums just weren't adding up.

It looked like there were three fraudulent claims in two boroughs.

With one objective - to get the council to pay half your rent

so you can live in a house you would never normally be able to afford.

Something had to be done to find out where all this cash was coming from.

He'd told the council and the DWP he wasn't working.

If there was something dodgy going on,

the council weren't going to let it slide.

We'll find out later if they get the proof they need.

The police undertook a search of the property, seizing numerous bits of documents,

taking photos as they went.

Now it's farewell to the scroungers that are trying to fleece the system

and let's say hello to those who we call our saints.

The people who do everything to make sure that those in need of help

who are too proud or simply don't know how to help themselves,

can get what they deserve.

In England alone, it's estimated

that there are around 2,000 people sleeping rough.

There are any number of reasons why people become homeless.

But I don't know about you, I'd always assumed that the process of becoming homeless

would take weeks or months.

Is it possible that you could wake up in the morning

without any idea that you'd be homeless the same night?

Meet Simon Griffin. In 2011, he left his home and found himself with nowhere to live.

Simon had been happily married for five years.

He had a young daughter, a nice home and a rewarding job as a technical engineer.

He was a man who had everything he'd always wanted,

but one night, Simon's world was turned upside-down

when he and his wife split.

I was shocked at the time, and I didn't think it was going to be for ever.

I thought it would be short term.

Even though it was tough, Simon took the decision to leave the family home.

I didn't want my daughter to see us arguing, falling out.

I don't believe that's right.

So I left the family house

to let the heat die down, which I thought it would.

Initially, Simon stayed with family and friends,

but when it became clear that the break-up was permanent,

things went from bad to worse.

When it really had sunk in that there was no relationship there no longer,

I was totally devastated,

to the point where I found it hard to cope with life,

to cope with people. I just had to be on my own in my own little world.

It was... It was the start of a breakdown for me.

With his mental and emotional state deteriorating,

Simon began spending more and more time alone in his car.

When I was in my car, I used to just start processing things in my head.

And that used to get me more and more depressed.

Simon struggled to keep up with the 12-hour shifts he was working as an engineer,

and took a part-time job as a cleaner instead.

Even this, though, proved too much for him

and his attendance at work was low.

Simon was suffering from depression.

He stopped taking care of himself.

And with no plan for the future,

the days spent in his car drifted into weeks

as he withdrew further and further away from the outside world.

I've come down to the place where Simon ended up

to find out more about this very difficult time in his life.

-Hi, Simon.

-Hi, Matt.

-So this is a spot of particular significance for you?

-Yes.

-Why?

I spent a lot of time over there, sleeping in my car, when times were bad.

Was that for the day or for the night, or..?

-About two months.

-For the whole two months.

-Yeah.

-What's that like?

It's awful.

Really low.

Bad as things can get.

What was it that brought you to that situation?

I was poorly, depressed.

Life wasn't worth living.

I was just at an all-time low.

What time of year was it?

It was March into April time.

It was a bad winter. It was cold, windy.

Not nice at all.

Did you feel like, at least inside the car,

you could control everything?

-Is that part of it?

-Yeah.

It's cos I didn't have to see anyone. I didn't have to answer to anyone.

What was happening to work during this time?

Presumably you were still employed. You hadn't left work.

I was employed, but I was taking a lot of sick days

because I was just not up to it.

Simon was suffering from clinical depression,

but he just didn't realise it.

I kept churning through past memories.

My wife, my daughter.

How things are not going to be the same no more.

The car had now broken down,

and his depression meant he only left it

when he was desperate for food.

He couldn't even bring himself to visit his daughter.

The police regularly patrolled the area where Simon was parked

and would briefly check to see he was OK.

One night, though, the officer on duty took more time than usual

and asked Simon how he'd ended up there.

As Simon began to open up,

it became clear he had nowhere else to go

and really needed help.

When did you become homeless?

I didn't really see it as homeless.

I'd got my own car and a sort of roof over my head.

But I needed a lot of help.

-A lot of help.

-So what did he do for you in the first instance?

He was ringing different authorities, trying to get me accommodation.

They were coming back negative.

He didn't give up! He kept going, he did!

The very next day, the police officer who'd found Simon,

together with the local council,

arranged an appointment for him at the Canaan Trust,

a charity that aims to give homeless people they help they need to get back on their feet.

It seemed like just the place Simon needed. But would they be able to take him in?

It was very clear that he was extremely depressed.

He'd withdrawn from all the support that was around him.

So it was clear that, you know,

somebody had to offer him some help and support to bring him forwards.

Having been at rock bottom for so long,

could this be the route to recovery that Simon really needed?

I was really nervous. Really, I was shaking at the time

I went in for my interview. Two guys interviewed me.

Seeing the state that Simon was in,

the support workers at the trust had to make a very quick decision.

If they rejected him, he was in danger of slipping even further into the grip of his depression.

And with no alternative, he'd have to go back to sleeping in his car.

They popped out for about five minutes or so.

And they came back in and said they'd got a room for me.

It was great news for Simon.

That very same day, he was welcomed into one of the three hostels

that Canaan Trust runs.

Russell Olding remembers their very first meeting.

When Simon walked through the door, physically how did he look?

Um, well, not well.

He was obviously very distressed.

And I don't think it was a pleasant experience for him to come through that door.

I think it took a lot of courage for him to get there.

What were Simon's immediate needs?

The immediate need was to get him a roof over his head.

Which we did quite quickly. Then beyond that,

it was just trying to get him to focus on

what he had to look forward to rather than what he'd lost.

What other problems were associated? He was clearly ill.

Yes. We got him registered with a GP and we looked to getting him assessed for his depression.

And getting medication.

The doctor confirmed that Simon was clinically depressed

and prescribed him a course of medication to help him get better.

Russell was then able to help Simon tackle the more practical issues

like his financial situation.

Simon had taken on a part-time job,

but unfortunately, because he was so depressed, he wasn't really turning up to that.

He'd been off more than he'd been in.

The next stage was to talk to his employer

and sort things out there.

Unfortunately, he wasn't in a fit state to work.

Unable to work because of his depression,

Simon was entitled to employment and support allowance

which helped with his immediate financial needs.

The next step was to get Simon integrating with others

and dealing with the issues that had led to him becoming depressed in the first place.

We started to chat to him about what he liked doing

and about the circumstances that had led him to us.

We found that Simon was quite quick to open up about

what he felt had caused the problems

and how he was dealing with that.

It was kind of a relief.

It's like sharing your problem.

And somebody who's there to say, "That problem ain't really that big.

"And if we did this, and if we looked at it from that way,

"your problem ain't so big."

Simon's issues were now being dealt with in a much more controlled environment.

And with his benefits relieving the immediate financial burden,

he was now ready to take the next step

to get him to a stage where he could feel ready

to return to the workplace once again.

He asked if he could study Maths and English at the Trust's college.

And Russell set it up for him.

Simon also threw himself into other more practical courses

like cookery and DIY, so he was ready for living in the outside world all by himself.

How many months after he was first brought in here

did you feel he was ready to move on?

It was coming up to the six-month mark when we felt he was ready to get a place of his own.

The obvious next step for him was to be able to have his daughter stay with him.

We couldn't see him progressing any further without that access.

And it's not possible in a place like this. This isn't where you'd want to bring a young child.

So he had to move out really so that that could form

-part of his progress and his healing, if you like.

-Yeah.

So we got in touch with the council and said, "We feel this guy is ready to move on

"and get his own tenancy."

With the help of the Trust and the right benefits in place,

Simon was able to move into a property of his own

and live independently in a flat provided by the council.

Russell and the other staff at the hostel, they played a massive part in getting me where I am today.

In me getting my flat, to me building my future.

Simon now lives independently.

He volunteers part-time for a local charity

and he hopes to be off employment and support allowance

and earning a wage again very soon.

But most importantly, he's been able to get back together with his daughter.

To have my daughter back in my life is priceless.

I can have her here whenever I want,

we've decorated it for us

and I'm really happy, because at one time,

I was really doubting whether it was actually going to happen again.

Whether I could actually have a relationship with my daughter again.

Simon thought his life as a family man was all mapped out

and that he'd be with his daughter and his wife

until their last days together.

In the blink of an eye, that changed,

and although he tried to cope with it by himself, he couldn't.

He needed help from this place.

They've helped him realise that although many things have changed,

one thing hasn't.

He's still a devoted dad.

Time now to return to the seedy and greedy world of our money-hungry scroungers.

Spiritualist leader Younus AlGohar had been unable to work since 1999,

due to migraines, and living on benefits.

Suspected of living in luxurious properties in Surrey and Kent

with you and I, the taxpayer, picking up half the tab,

"His Holiness" was being investigated by the local council.

Here at Reigate and Banstead, we have a zero tolerance approach to fraud.

We investigate and pursue each case that comes up.

And we recover fairly substantial amounts of money.

Having spotted a pattern in the fraud,

investigators had to get to the bottom of how Younus AlGohar

was affording such high rents and deposits.

On paper, he was living on benefits,

but there seemed to be much more money floating around.

So where was it coming from?

From looking at the claim paperwork,

I was able to look into Younus AlGohar's finances.

I noted that he'd declared he held two bank accounts

which hadn't been declared for benefit purposes.

These hidden accounts suggested that AlGohar wasn't leading the modest lifestyle of a spiritual leader

living on benefits.

There were a lot of payments being made especially to flight companies

and hotels abroad, as well as payments in foreign currency.

There were also a lot of debits coming in

which suggested there was some form of unearned income going into the account as well.

But where was all the money coming from?

It was coming in and going out.

And he seemed to be a bit of an international traveller

with a taste for the high life.

The overseas payments on the bank statements showed payments being made in foreign currency

including rupees, American dollars and euros over in France as well.

As well as payments being made, there were in-flight payments for duty free and to airways.

With undeclared bank accounts and large payments being made and received,

the investigator got on the phone to the Department for Work and Pensions

who'd been paying Younus AlGohar income support for over four years

to the tune of £54,682 to which he was almost certainly not entitled.

The two organisations combined forces.

With the help of the investigator's digging,

Reigate and Bromley Council and the DWP

now had some very difficult questions for AlGohar to answer.

With the help of Surrey police, it was time for them to pay him a visit

to gather some hard evidence on the source of his undisclosed income

and to find out whether he genuinely was living the kind of lifestyle

that you'd expect from someone dependent on benefits.

At 7.00am on a morning in November 2011,

the team struck.

The time of the raid was early one morning.

Younus AlGohar was not actually present at the property,

however, the operation continued regardless.

A lot of documents were found in the property and were seized.

They were documents relating to his current or previous tenancies that he held,

in relation to his income and also the claims he'd made for benefits

to put up a picture of his finances and his lifestyle.

These documents provided the proof that AlGohar had made false claims

relating to his rental agreements and earnings.

Investigators were also surprised by the huge haul of technical hardware,

including mobile phones, laptops and large-screen TVs found at the property.

There's no strict rules as to what kind of possessions a person can have

when they're claiming benefits.

There's nothing to stop a claimant have large TVs and lots of equipment.

However, it depends how those items have been funded

which may raise alarm bells.

AlGohar wasn't at home for the raid,

but later on handed himself in to a local police station

where he was interviewed under caution.

Younus AlGohar was presented with the evidence that had been obtained

during the investigation and the subsequent search of his property.

He was asked to comment on all the pieces of evidence that were put before him.

In spite all the evidence of three false housing benefit claims,

and defrauding the DWP,

AlGohar remained tight-lipped.

At the start of the interview, Younus AlGohar confirmed his name and identity details.

But gave a "no comment" interview when the questions and evidence were put before him.

But there was one thing that came across very clearly from "His Holiness".

Despite giving a "no comment" interview,

Younus AlGohar came across as polite and kind during the interview.

With undeclared bank accounts and large sums of money

being credited and debited,

the investigators believed that Younus AlGohar was a man who was not entitled to benefits.

And the case was passed on to the decision makers.

The decision makers are trained benefit entitlement assessors

within an authority such as the council or the Department of Work and Pensions

who review claim paperwork and evidence

and then use this to decide whether a claimant is entitled to benefits or not.

DWP decision makers made the initial decision and decided AlGohar was not entitled to income support

which created an overpayment of £54,682.

The decision maker at Reigate Council then reviewed the evidence

and also decided that Younus AlGohar was not entitled to his housing benefit or council tax benefit

for the entirety of his claim.

This created an overpayment of £3,498 housing benefit

and £1,058 council tax benefit.

But it didn't stop there.

There was the property in Keston to take into account, too.

The case then passed to the decision maker at London Borough of Bromley

who also decided that AlGohar was not entitled to his housing benefit for the entirety of his claim.

This created an overpayment of £16,100.

They also removed his entitlement to council tax benefit

creating an additional overpayment of £2,295.

That's a staggering £77,646 fleeced from the taxpayer by "His Holiness"

who gallivanted around the globe staying in luxurious hotels

and treating himself to duty free.

AlGohar was taken to court facing 12 charges of dishonesty

under the Social Security Administration Act of 1992.

But he pleaded not guilty, despite the overwhelming evidence against him.

Two months later, he changed his mind.

At the Plea and Case Management hearing in June 2013,

Younus AlGohar changed his plea and pleaded guilty to 11 of the 12 charges.

AlGohar was found not guilty of the 12th charge against him.

At a sentencing hearing, his QC argued against a prison sentence

due to his work with The Messiah Foundation International

where he was an important figure in the fight against extremism.

Younus AlGohar was not sentenced to prison.

However, he was handed three concurrent imprisonment sentences

which were suspended for 18 months.

The longest of which has been 36 weeks.

Perhaps he was able to walk from the court a free man

because in-between pleading guilty and the sentencing hearing,

although not implicated in any way in his crime,

The Messiah Foundation International dug deep and repaid the £75,585 overpayment in full.

That really is divine intervention!

And the money is now back in the public purse.

AlGohar was ordered to do 240 hours of community service

and pay costs of £6,000.

To the members of The Messiah Foundation,

Younus AlGohar was someone who, for three years,

had chosen to abstain from all but the basic necessities of life.

Unfortunately, that didn't include housing and council tax benefits and income support.

On the plus side, he is now once again working in the community.

But this time, it's because the court has ordered him to!