Episode 5 Saints and Scroungers

In this country, the money we pay as taxes goes to provide

essential services that we rely upon every day and

it's also there to give us a safety net if things go wrong

or life takes an unexpected turn.

This help comes in the shape of vital support that improves lives.

Without the benefits, I'd have had to have taken him out of nursery.

But then there are some people who see that money as something

they deserve, even when they don't.

And those who cheat the system tend to get their comeuppance.

Clearly, she was able to make significant profit.

This is the world of Saints & Scroungers.

Saints & Scroungers highlights people using

and abusing our benefits system.

On one hand, you have the genuine, on the other, fakers and fraudsters.

While investigators across the UK battle to bring the bogus claimants

to justice, the Saints try their hardest to get people

the help that they desperately need.

Coming up on today's show...

a fraudster operating across two London boroughs

using different identities.

He'd defrauded the London borough of Ealing and

Hammersmith and Fulham of £174,000 in housing benefit claims.

And we meet a grandmother struggling to bring up her troubled grandchild,

who finds help she didn't know existed.

I'm a very proud woman.

A very proud woman. I don't like asking for help, really.

Hello, I'm Matt Allwright. I'm a TV presenter.

Luckily for you, there's only one of me,

but imagine if there wasn't - imagine if there were more of me

with different names, but the same face

running around all over the country.

It's a scary thought.

Hello.

Hola!

Funnily enough, that's exactly what some people do

to commit benefit fraud.

They create false identities

and then use those aliases to claim more benefits than they deserve.

Go on, get lost.

Accept no substitute!

Meet Rachid Walid, a 41-year-old French national who worked

part-time as a cleaner in a bakery and

lived in a rented flat in Acton.

His wages were so low that Ealing Council paid for his

housing costs and his council tax.

In total, he received nearly £26,000 in benefits over a 22-month period.

Everything appeared to be above board,

until the Fraud Unit at Ealing Council got a tip-off that

some foreign nationals might be using fake IDs.

Manager Sudhi Pathak was in charge of the case.

Islington provided us

with some intelligence specifically on fake...

the use of fake passports to claim benefits.

There were a batch of passports that had been stolen from France,

either from a variety of people or an actual batch from

the French authorities themselves,

so those were the fake passports that are in circulation.

With the prospect of loads of dodgy French passports floating around,

Sudhi immediately searched the benefits database in Ealing

to flush out any suspicious French claimants.

We had a fraud profile.

Broadly, they were of Algerian nationality, uh, single males,

and, in the main, working a low number of hours, part-time hours,

which, in effect, made them eligible to, um, apply for housing benefit.

That was the fraud profile that we were after.

Yep, the profile fitted our part-time cleaner Rachid.

Well, almost...

He was a French Algerian,

but still pinged up on investigators' suspect list.

Well, Rachid Walid, um, came to our attention and he had provided

a number of documents to us that had fitted that profile of being

a single male living in a particular postcode at the time.

In order to have the claim go through, initially

he had to submit his identification, which... He submitted his passport.

He also had to provide proof of employment

and he'd provided a letter from an employer and also payslips.

Um, and some timesheets to show the hours that he had worked.

Walid had given council officials all of the right paperwork,

but it needed to be checked.

C'est incroyable!

"It's unbelievable," in French.

A series of hooky French passports being used

to make fraudulent benefit claims.

Time for Ealing Council to channel their energies into investigating.

Sudhi's Fraud Team now prioritised their investigation into the

use of fraudulent French passports and they call it Operation Rapport.

The lead officer on the team, who's asked for his identity

to remain anonymous due to the nature of his job,

had responsibility for investigating Mr Walid, amongst others.

His first job was to confirm

whether the passport Walid had used in his claim was genuine.

The French Embassy or the UKBA,

will normally tell you whether the passport is counterfeit,

i.e., not on their database at all, or if it's been, um,

substituted photograph, so it's a real person,

but the passport's been stolen and the photo replaced...

with that person's identity.

Now, as EU nationals,

French people are perfectly entitled to claim benefits

when they reside in the UK, but if Walid was in fact Algerian,

he wouldn't be entitled to anything.

So, had he been using a fake passport to get access to benefits?

Rachid Walid was confirmed as being a counterfeit passport,

so they had no record of that individual on their database...

um, from the French Embassy.

'He wasn't French.

'He was a fake!'

The Fraud Team was now on the trail of a suspected benefit cheat

and the lead investigator started looking at all of the documents

that Walid had provided to support his claim.

Checks were conducted with the employer he'd declared initially

in his claim for benefit, which was the Baker's Oven.

And it became apparent that the proof provided for the Baker's Oven

was false, was fake.

He'd never worked for the Baker's Oven,

they'd never employed anyone by the name of Rachid Walid.

He'd made up everything about his employer.

He never worked for Baker's Oven at all, he'd just forged

references, timesheets and wage slips to qualify for benefits.

So, who was this mysterious benefit claimant?

He was using a fake passport and stolen and false identity

to claim benefits

and the employer he claimed to be working for had never heard of him.

It was time for the Fraud Team to get to the bottom of things.

Rachid was now a prime suspect in Operation Rapport and the Fraud Team

decided to pay him an early morning visit to find out what

he had to say for himself.

'After we'd gathered enough evidence,'

my investigators and the police raided the property on this road.

We were intending to break into the property

if necessary in order to, um, attempt to recover...

the fake passport, if possible.

I think it was approximately ten to seven in the morning, um...

We actually alerted

the occupant just by knocking, who then opened the door to us.

It was then, um...

clear from the person that opened the door...

that they resembled...

the person that was on the photo used in the fake passport.

Bingo. The investigating team had got their man or, at least,

-they thought they had.

-We asked if we could speak to Rachid Walid

and he stated that, no, he didn't know him

and he gave his name as a Mr Brahim Lounnas.

'So, he didn't know Walid, but was living in a house

'registered under that name. That doesn't sound right.

'The officers had not come across the name Lounnas before,

'so they decided to make a quick call to find out

'if the story from Walid was valid.'

'We phoned the number that was provided...

'on the claim form for Rachid Walid

'and the phone started ringing in the house.'

MOBILE RINGS

So, let's get this straight...

'the bloke lived in Walid's house, had Walid's mobile phone, and

'was a dead ringer for him, but was insisting he'd never met the man.

'Clearly, he's having a laugh.

'The investigators now knew that Lounnas or Walid or whatever

'he was calling himself was not being honest with them,

'but he still wasn't going to make their job easy.'

Mr Lounnas remained silent pretty much throughout the time we were

in the property. A full search was conducted in which, um...

various documents were seized, um,

including a number of passport photos of the individual.

The same photos that were used by Rachid Walid

in the photo on his passport.

Um, a number of...

benefit documents relating to Rachid Walid at Ealing.

A passport and benefits papers all in the name of Walid.

Evidence just doesn't get much better than that.

It was looking like an open and shut case until the officers

turned up even more ID with exactly the same picture on it.

We found, um, an ID for Brahim Lounnas, an Algerian ID,

an Algerian identity card with his...

..photo attached.

So, who was this guy? Lounnas or Walid?

Whoever he was, he'd potentially stolen nearly 26 grand from

Ealing Council and Sudhi's team had now put together

the evidence to prove it.

Back of the net. The team finally had the man,

but they were also starting to realise that the scale of this

man's fraud was much bigger than they'd ever suspected.

When the property was raided, we found a number of bank statements,

details of mobile phones, but, more interestingly...

documents that showed a number of other fake IDs.

For now, it's farewell to the fraudsters

and hello to the people we call Saints.

Those in our society that help others in genuine need,

but who are sometimes too proud or don't even know how to claim

what's rightfully theirs.

Family life, for most of us, is the thing that brings and binds us

together and, in many cases, makes us who we are,

but, when tragedy strikes at the heart of the family,

it can change your life in a way you never thought possible.

41-year-old Jackie Somerford was a young grandmother who enjoyed

an active social life.

But her carefree lifestyle came to an abrupt end in 1999

when Bonnie, her teenage daughter,

found out she was having Jackie's second grandchild.

Bonnie had a drugs problem and was in an unstable relationship.

She didn't think she could cope with having a baby

and neither did social services.

So, when Bonnie asked her mother for help with her unborn child,

Jackie really didn't feel she had any choice.

I thought...

well, I'd have to bring this child up cos I couldn't see him going in care.

And I knew she wasn't in a position, with the partner that she was with,

to bring this child up.

In July 2001, Roger was born.

Jackie was hopeful that Bonnie's chaotic lifestyle would change

and she would grow into the mother she knew her daughter could be,

but it was soon clear that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-How are you doing, Jackie? Good to see you.

-Come in.

Thank you.

How did things change for you, practically, when Roger comes along?

I had to give up work.

How does that work out financially for you?

Well, it didn't at the time cos I had to go on the state benefit.

-Not something that you would have chosen to do.

-No. Not at all.

Cos I was happy working.

Jackie wanted to provide Roger with a secure and stable upbringing,

so she applied for and was given custody of him by the Family Court.

She was determined to give her grandson the same positive

start in life that her own three children had.

When Roger became a toddler,

Jackie realised this was going to be difficult.

At the age of three, I noticed the behaviour with him.

Um, I'd go up to the nursery to pick him up and he'd have

an outburst out there where he would trash the whole playgroup.

He went to year one and he started to really be bad.

Um, he wouldn't, um, do any work,

he would disrupt the class.

-Still, clearly things are wrong.

-Yeah.

'After Roger's disruptions at school, he was assessed by a doctor

'and diagnosed with having emotional-social behaviour.

'He was taken out of mainstream school

'and placed in a special needs school.

'Jackie was struggling to cope with Roger's violent outbursts and

'just when she thought things couldn't get any worse,

'Bonnie disappeared.'

I got a phone call from a friend of hers

to say that she'd been missing a week.

So, I told that friend to phone the police and report her missing.

Bonnie was placed on the Missing Persons List

and when Jackie eventually heard from the police, nothing

could have prepared her for the news that she got about her daughter.

I received a phone call from the police asking to come over...

..and, um, they came over and they introduced their self to me

as homicide.

I told them she was dead.

And they asked me, "How did I know?"

I said, "Because the week that she was missing,

"I just had a gut feeling something was wrong."

Tragically, her gut feeling was spot-on

and the police confirmed that Bonnie had been killed.

It was a nightmare for Jackie, but even as she was grieving for Bonnie,

she had to stay strong for her grandson,

who was just six years old at the time.

Well, there was still Roger I had to think of...

..and I had to try and shield him.

But, when he found out about his mum...

that did have a big impact on his behaviour again.

Jackie wanted to help Roger as much as possible,

but it was tough for her, as a single gran on benefits,

to get even basic things like clothes.

-Have you read that one?

-Mm-hm.

She was at a loss about how to provide more for him until

she heard about an organisation which might be able to help.

I heard about the Family Fund through another parent at school.

The Fund distributes money on behalf of the government to children

with disabilities for things that would improve their lives

but which they can't afford.

'Jackie applied to the Fund earlier this year

'and she needed some help with'

some basic items like clothing

and was looking for help with her computer.

'So, we looked at her application form and felt that'

Jackie really needed to have a visit

'by one of our advisors who would go into her home,

'talk about her application.'

'I went to visit Jackie in South London to find out what's happened.'

Two weeks after I got me visit,

I got a phone call from them to say that I've been accepted.

And that Roger had got his computer.

Do you think it's something that's going to make a big difference?

Yeah, a very big difference to him.

Would it have been totally outside your budget otherwise?

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

How does it make you feel though?

I mean, you've been through such an incredible story, I mean...

I'm a very proud woman.

A very proud woman. I don't like asking for help, really.

The small grant provided by the charity has been

instrumental in helping Roger move on with his life.

And, for fund manager Clare Kassa, it's been a successful case of

helping a particular type of family unit that all too often misses out.

Jackie seemed not to know, really, about Family Fund.

She didn't really feel that she was due anything from you.

Is that something that you encounter quite a lot?

We do encounter it quite a lot with grandparents.

Um, lots of grandparents don't know that the Family Fund exists

because they're not linked into the same support networks that

other parents are.

'Jackie's been through some dark times with Roger,

'but this government-funded organisation has helped to

'make the future look a lot brighter.'

They've helped my family, so, if they can help my family, they can

help other families as well, and make life better for a lot of people.

Jackie's having to steer her family through a series of experiences,

which, for most of us, are unimaginable AND she's

helping her grandson to heal the most painful of scars.

The help she's receiving may seem small,

but, when you're trying to be strong, sometimes knowing

that there's someone looking out for you can make a huge difference.

OK, everyone, sit up straight. It's Scrounger time.

The Fraud Team at Ealing Council have been taking part in a

London-wide investigation into fake French passports being used

to claim benefits.

The team discover that a claimant called Rachid Walid had been

using a false passport to get housing benefit, but,

when they raided his address,

despite looking like Walid,

he claimed he was someone else.

Brahim Lounnas, um,

his name came to our attention, um,

when we visited the property initially...

looking for Rachid,

the door was opened by a gentleman who introduced himself

as Brahim Lounnas and who looked very similar,

or identical to, the photograph of Rachid Walid.

Brahim Lounnas was a new name...

uh, to me.

It wasn't someone...a name that we were investigating or that we

were connected with,

so, um...

..it was new to us, but the decision was taken, because

of the look and the resemblance,

that we wanted to go inside and look.

And it was a good job that the team did decide to search his house,

because not only did they find fake documents relating to Walid,

they found other incriminating evidence.

As the search continued,

and the different IDs were being found, bank cards,

cheque books, bank statements in the names of Abdeslem Farahi,

and Kerrime Messikh.

And benefit documents for Hammersmith and Fulham

relating to a Nouredine Messikh.

So, this wasn't just a case of one man and his alter ego, this man

seemed to have a different identity for every day of the working week.

The team had uncovered a treasure trove of other fake IDs,

but they still had to find out who was behind the operation.

The three other fake IDs in the names of Abdeslem Farahi

and Kerrime Messikh and Nouredine Messikh were being used to make

benefit claims from neighbouring Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

Benefit claims that matched identically the type of claims

that suspect Lounnas had been making in the name Rachid Walid.

And the team in Ealing immediately contacted their colleagues

in Hammersmith and Fulham about what they'd found.

The investigation became a joint investigation between ourselves

and Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

They had, um...

..three different claims in three different IDs.

They mentioned Abdeslem Farahi, Nouredine Messikh and

Kerrime Messikh at different addresses

going back over various timeframes.

Um, quite a large overpayment of benefit had been made

from Hammersmith and Fulham.

During the search of the house, the investigators found

different folders with the names of the three bogus claimants -

Abdeslem Farahi, Kerrime Messikh and Nouredine Messikh,

and fake documents relating to their claims

from Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

They started looking into the other three claims -

all of them worked short,

part-time hours in order to qualify for benefits.

All were doing the same kind of job

and all of their IDs had been stolen according to the French Embassy.

Some people have skeletons in their closet.

This guy had whole identities in his cupboard - passports,

bank cards and statements,

correspondence and all in different names.

When the Fraud Team analysed the employment documents relating to the

benefit claims, they discovered the names of employers had been made up.

The whole thing was a pack of lies.

We passed on all our findings to Hammersmith and Fulham and gave them

that information and, unfortunately, they had been defrauded as well.

He'd defrauded the London borough of Ealing,

and Hammersmith and Fulham, of...

Whoa! 174,000 quid - serious money.

£26,000 had been stolen from Ealing Council.

And £148,000 from Hammersmith and Fulham.

The team knew that the fraudster had rented

three properties in Fulham, and one in Ealing

in order to commit the fraud, but what was he doing with all of them?

The rents were being paid in the property in Acton on Cotton Avenue,

but we don't know if he was residing in the Acton property at that stage

or in any of the Hammersmith and Fulham properties.

It seems likely that there may have been, in order to obtain

financial gain, there may have been subletting taking place in...

..some or all of the Hammersmith and Fulham properties.

So, he was getting the properties paid for by the taxpayer

and then renting them out again.

For over five years, the fraudster had been a landlord at our expense!

The estate agents that managed the properties where

the bogus claimants were registered had to be contacted

and they turned out to be very helpful.

I went along to Churchill's Letting Agents and showed them

a photo of Brahim Lounnas,

the person who we had identified at the address who had given that

name and they confirmed that the photo of Brahim Lounnas was

the same as that for Rachid Walid who had taken out a tenancy

at that address in Cotton Avenue.

Result! An independent eyewitness that could confirm Lounnas has been

posing as Walid and when the team interviewed the other

letting agencies about the aliases...

they all confirmed they'd been dealing with Lounnas as well.

Once we'd carried out the raid and carried out further checks,

we came to the conclusion, we found out that the true identity

of this person was Lounnas and all of the other IDs were false IDs.

Sudhi had to piece the complicated case together

and his prime suspect wasn't being very helpful.

After Brahim Lounnas was arrested, he was brought in for questioning

and interviewed under caution.

He did identify himself as Brahim Lounnas

but he refused to comment and didn't answer any of our questions.

He might have been tight-lipped in the interview room,

but when he was faced with the judge, somehow he found his voice.

In January 2012, uh, Lounnas appeared before Isleworth Crown Court,

and pleaded guilty to 13 charges.

He was sentenced to serve three years in prison.

It was a good result for Ealing Fraud Team

and it's a case that the council has certainly learned some lessons from.

In the aftermath of the Lounnas case,

we decided to take some proactive action

and what we've introduced is a document ID checker

and that allows us to scan passports and to scan driving licences,

so, as soon as something fake is discovered, we know what's happening

and we can contact UKBA and do an investigation ourselves, so,

hopefully, nothing like this will happen again.

So, fraudsters beware, you may be good at coming up with new names,

different haircuts and different faces,

but, when you end up in jail, the identity you'll be using...

will be the real one.