The Property Swindlers Saints and Scroungers

Theft of public money costs the UK taxpayer over £20 billion a year.

This case was one of the biggest cases we've ever had.

Came into the region of about half a million pounds.

It's money which should be going into the public pot,

to spend on essential services.

The victims in this case are the public,

and the money could have been used to build schools, or fund hospitals.

And throughout the country there are specially trained investigators

making sure that justice is served.

The system cannot be beaten.

They will be held to account at some point.

In this series, we meet the men and women across the UK

who are committed to catching criminals stealing from you and me,

the British taxpayer.

But we also hear stories from people

who genuinely need help from public money.

I didn't know there was anything better out there,

until she started at the institute.

I would swap places tomorrow with him. Then he could walk.

And sometimes they don't even realise they're entitled to it.

When you're in the situation we were in, it's our only hope.

Coming up, a complex case of fraud

reveals a family who are not all they seem.

It just looks almost derelict, looked like a shed, you know,

and it didn't look like a place where a man would be living with his child.

They were pretending to live apart for profit,

purely to make money out of the housing benefit system.

A hospital worker feigns disability to steal money from the state.

The NHS knew absolutely nothing about her being disabled in any way.

And an undiagnosed condition

leaves a young woman ill-prepared for her future.

I was told that I'd be a failure for my whole life,

so, I think they gave up on me.

And I gave up on myself.

Benefits are there for people who need and deserve them,

but there are also people who don't need OR deserve them,

and the ways they devise to get their hands on them

can be very complex and difficult to unravel.

And that's why 365 days a year across the UK,

the Department For Work And Pensions, local councils and the police are working together.

Fraud is a national problem.

We have access to information which is national.

But even their combined efforts to crack the toughest of cases of theft

can sometimes put the investigators to the test.

The bigger picture started to emerge, even though it was still complicated.

In 2010, a standard computer check on benefits claimants' records

threw up a query surrounding a Barnet resident,

bringing him to the attention of the Department for Work and Pensions investigator, Phil.

'Well, we have something called a data matching service,'

which matches data from different computer systems

that might show up discrepancies in people's claims,

such as whether people are....

..received a certain amount of interest, in the past year,

or whether they're getting another benefit, or paying tax.

In this case then, what was it you were looking for?

So, this case, it was a match that showed

people that had received a lot of interest,

which might indicate that they have got excessive savings, which they're not allowed to have.

What, you can't have any savings at all, if you're claiming benefits?

You can, but the limit, the ceiling is £16,000.

If you have any more over than that, then you're not allowed benefit.

The 16K limit applies to means-tested benefits,

such as housing and council tax benefits, and income support.

The computer check was throwing a question mark over one Manzoor Qader,

a single dad who'd been claiming benefit since 2002

to help care for his son.

He was claiming income support,

because he declared that he was a single parent with one child.

And that was in addition to his housing benefit

and council tax benefit.

With records showing that Mr Qader had been paid

a substantial amount of interest,

Phil's team contacted the bank to find out more.

The law allows us to go to the banks to find out

precisely how much they have had in the life of the claim.

So, with Mr Qader, what did you find?

What we found was that he had in the region of £50,000 in the bank.

That sort of savings means you're counted out of benefits completely.

Definitely, completely out of being able to apply for benefits,

because you've got that money that you can live on instead.

A seemingly clear case of claiming benefits

when he had significant savings,

Phil's team called Mr Qader in for questioning,

but despite sending numerous letters, he didn't show up.

In an attempt to make headway,

the case was referred to Barnet Council,

the borough in which Mr Qader lived.

Tony Nash, an investigator, went to Qader's home.

We came here to deliver an interview under caution letter

to Mr Qader but there was no reply

so the letter was put through the letter box.

It did not appear as if the property was lived in, at the time.

It looked almost derelict. It looked like a shed.

It didn't look like a place where a man would be living

with his child.

These things, in themselves,

it's no smoking gun.

It's another little thing that makes you

think wider afield, think let's look at previous addresses.

Sometimes you do go round houses that don't look lived in

and they are but in this case,

it does...give you some suspicion as to the fact there might be

something else going on.

With a hunch that there might be hidden depths to this case,

the team started to delve into Mr Qader's background.

We looked at his previous addresses.

That's when we started uncovering a can of worms.

In order to check where Mr Qader had been living

when he made his initial claim,

Tony Nash dug out a rental contract.

This is the tenancy agreement between

the landlord and Manzoor Qader

on 29th February 2008

for a monthly rental fee of £1,000.

He supplied that document

when he completed his initial claim for housing benefit

and council tax benefit.

On his claim form, he states he has no savings whatsoever,

which is totally false

from subsequent information gathered.

He's submitted a false claim for

housing benefit from the outset.

The team now had their first concrete evidence

that Qader's benefit claim was false.

They now needed to find the property's owner

to verify the details on the paperwork.

They contacted the Land Registry.

This is the Land Registry document.

It shows that Hannah Teresa Grigson

paid £237,500

on 19th February 2008 for the property.

So she is the registered owner.

In order to establish who Hannah Grigson was,

the team looked for links between her and Mr Qader.

Record checks on Qader's child

revealed that the mother was none other than Hannah Grigson.

We linked them together because they had records for the child

at different addresses under both the parents.

Hold on. He was supposed to be a single parent

and suddenly

his child has now got a mother who he seems to be living with

or is his landlord or something similar?

She owned the property and he was living there.

He certainly doesn't look like a single parent any more.

-Definitely not.

-He's got the savings, which we know about.

But now he's also got a strange kind of, "to be defined"

relationship with the woman whose house he's living in.

In fact, Hannah Grigson turned out to be Mr Qader's wife.

And she was known to another London borough,

where she too was claiming benefits.

We discovered that it was quite a complicated fraud.

Kirsten Quinn, counter fraud manager,

led the team at Enfield Council,

who were invited to get involved in the case by the DWP.

Hannah Grigson presented herself at Enfield Council

as a lone parent, recently separated with

two small children.

She told us she'd rented a property in our area

and she had a rental liability for that.

She gave a lease agreement and an amount for the rent.

But as with her husband's claims,

Hannah's story wasn't in order.

Checks on the property she was claiming for

revealed an interesting fact

about who HER landlord was.

The lease agreement was made up.

The landlord was actually her husband

and the father of the children.

He owned the property.

As a consequence, there was no rental liability at that property

and we should never have paid benefit there.

Furthermore, when the Enfield team delved deeper

into Hannah Grigson's background,

an interesting arrangement came to light.

We also discovered she owned a property

and that property was being rented out in the Barnet area

to somebody, which turned out to be her husband.

Effectively, he was renting property from her

and she was renting property from him.

They'd split the children between them

so they were both claiming as lone parents.

All of those claims were fraudulent.

With what appeared to be all of the lies out in the open,

the Department for Work and Pensions

coordinated the two councils

to pull the case together.

It's been quite a complex case compared to most

because we had to coordinate the different local authorities

that got involved across different areas,

involving different properties,

either for things like arrests or interviews

or even gathering evidence

and getting statements ready for court.

With the net closing in,

there was still one outstanding question

that the authorities needed answering.

Were the couple actually living together?

In the end, where were they when you found them?

They were living together

as a couple.

Not only were the deceiving us because of the amount

of savings, they were deceiving DWP

and the local authorities because they were living together

as a family when they said they were both single parents.

The lengthy inquiry had revealed the truth.

Two and a half years of investigation

and it all ended up at this property here?

It did. This is where we came to arrest them

and we took Mr Qader

to the police station to be interviewed.

After all the chasing around at different addresses,

this is where we came to and this is where nabbed them

and got them to give us their version of events.

He was finally in front of the fraud team.

But Mr Qader refused to cooperate,

despite the overwhelming evidence.

We start by putting the evidence to him

and firstly checking that he knows

the rules for claiming benefit

and showing him the declarations that he's signed over the years

of claiming benefit

and then putting the evidence to him that we'd amassed

to see what he'd say about it.

Unfortunately, he just said no comment to everything.

In the days that followed, Mr Qader's silence

would turn to lies in the court room.

Every penny wrongly taken form the public purse

is money that would otherwise help countless people

who need support.

People like Sarah Chapman,

a young mum from the Midlands.

I am Isla. I used to feel like the loneliest girl in the world.

When reading, I could read about five words and then

they get all...go all blurry.

These children are giving a talk about their struggles

with dyslexia,

something that, with the right support, they are managing.

But if that condition isn't diagnosed,

your school days can be some of the most difficult times of your life.

I had a really awful time...

I had no confidence and self esteem.

My teacher wasn't very helpful with anything.

I just... I just really struggled.

Back in the early '90s, young Sarah Chapman

was finding primary school challenging.

When it came to learn to read,

I felt like I was hitting a brick wall

and I didn't understand why I wasn't learning.

I used to sit by the window.

When it comes to bright light, my eyes are really sensitive

to sunlight.

I used to get sleepy so I was lazy!

But a problem with Sarah's eyes wasn't the only issue.

My long-term memory is great but my short-term memory...

I need to be taught in a certain way.

If someone's firing information at me, it won't go in.

School began to be a real battle with no-one getting to

the bottom of why Sarah was struggling.

They said I didn't try hard enough.

I needed to try harder.

I remember my dad was called in...

weekly, almost, to talk about the standard of my work.

I know I was the only one still writing in pencil

when everyone else was writing in pens.

As Sarah's problems mounted,

so did her frustration.

I'd go out of my way to avoid

being put in a situation where I could be humiliated.

If it meant answering back and getting thrown out

of the class, that is what I would do.

I spent most of my school time in the corridor.

I didn't get any help.

In 1995, the time came to move on to secondary school.

I was looking forward to having another chance.

But as soon as I got there

and started in lessons, I realised that it wasn't going to be

a new start at all.

It was just the same old trouble, different place.

Just as in primary school,

no-one looked for underlying causes to her behaviour.

I don't think anyone approached me.

I never even heard the term dyslexia until I was an adult.

I didn't know...what it was.

Faced with a lack of understanding,

Sarah's behaviour became unmanageable.

I have a pile an inch thick of suspension letters, expulsion,

and actually, in year eight, I was removed from all lessons

and when I ate my dinner I'd have to

go sit in the middle of the stage in front of everybody and eat my food.

The first time they tried to make me do it,

I literally picked up my tray

and threw it across the room and ran out of school.

Labelled a bad child, it only made her sense of isolation worse.

I used to look at people, especially the girls,

cos I couldn't understand, "How come they have a group of friends?

"Why aren't I able to have that?"

I alienated people, because of my behaviour,

so I knew it was my own fault.

By the time her exams loomed,

Sarah had been all but written off by her school.

I was told that it was a waste of paper me sitting my exams.

I wasn't expecting to pass any of my exams.

I was told I would be a failure for my whole life, so...

I think they gave up on me.

And I gave up on myself.

By law, Sarah still had to sit her GCSEs

but it was a pitiless experience.

I sat there and literally...

Sorry.

I literally sat there and sobbed through most of my exams,

like, I couldn't work and especially in English,

I mean... There was two questions that you had to answer

but they were both essays and I was really, really struggling

and by the time that everyone else was finishing,

I was still...sat there on the first paragraph.

Aged 16, she left school with barely any qualifications.

They should have noticed that something wasn't right and

I have spent my whole life

feeling like I was a failure because of how...

SHE CHOKES UP Sorry.

For almost a decade, Sarah travelled and then, in 2008,

aged 26 and pregnant, she headed to her then boyfriend's hometown,

Calverton in Nottinghamshire.

I didn't know anybody.

And I just walked past this place,

I'd never even really noticed it before

and I saw a sign advertising for IT courses,

so I went in because I knew that I was pregnant

and I had no skills, I had no chance of getting a decent job

and I didn't want to be sat on benefit.

Sarah's meeting with Sue Stone,

learning manager at the Core Centre in Calverton town centre,

which runs educational courses for adults,

would mark a turning point in her life.

It's the first time Sarah's been back in years.

-Hello.

-Sarah!

-Lovely to see you.

-Hello, how are you?

-I'm fine.

Sarah came to us in her 20s. She'd not got any stability in her life.

She'd got very low self esteem, she'd got no self belief

and her confidence was very low.

I think she realised herself she'd got to be

a more responsible adult as she'd got a child coming.

And she wanted to be a good parent.

Sarah began taking courses in everything from IT to first aid.

I literally worked my way through every single course that they did.

I worked full-time, I never missed a day

and I really, really enjoyed every moment of being there.

But it wasn't just the courses on offer

that made such a difference to Sarah.

The teaching at the Core Centre

was a world away from what she'd had at school.

They treated me like an adult.

They explained things to me and even though at that point

I still didn't know I was dyslexic, I just work really hard

and I had that support around me and they encouraged to keep going.

As she succeeded in all these courses, she gained self-respect,

she realised she could do them.

So that just bolstered her self-confidence and she bloomed.

Proud of Sarah's achievement,

Sue even nominated her for an adult learners award, which she won.

What they wrote about me was just absolutely amazing,

that I'd made that much of an impression on somebody.

I tell them very, very, very often how much they did for me.

-OK, Sarah.

-Take care of yourself.

Lovely to see you. Keep in touch.

-Let us know what is happening.

-Stay out of trouble!

After eight months under the Core Centre's wing,

now mum to a baby girl, Sarah's newfound confidence saw her

continue with her studies at college.

I went from the Core Centre

and actually applied to college

to do an Access To Higher Education teaching diploma

and it was knowing that actually, "I'm not stupid,

"I can do this and I can do it well,"

that's what spurred me on even further and I actually,

surprisingly, applied to go to university.

With the college's support and backing, in 2010, Sarah received

a letter from Derby University that she never thought she'd see.

When it actually came through I was accepted, I couldn't move.

I cried, I was so, so happy.

I never, ever thought that I was intelligent enough to go to

university and get a degree.

But despite being offered a place, Sarah was still plagued

with the difficulties she'd experienced all her life.

Having no idea what was the cause.

Again, I was struggling to retain the information.

I researched it, basically, and looked it up and dyslexia, this word,

kept popping up at me.

Although I wasn't formally assessed,

that's when I actually started to click that I was dyslexic.

Sarah asked for a formal dyslexia assessment from the university

and finally, later that year, received some news that made

everything about her childhood clear.

I was 27 when I found out I was dyslexic.

So, it was quite a shock and I went through all mixed, a mix of emotions,

I was relieved, because I'd finally learned there was a reason,

it wasn't because I was stupid, there was a reason.

And then I went through a stage

of feeling quite angry, towards my teacher

and towards my parents especially for not picking it up.

Dee Caunt, chief executive of The Dyslexia Association,

knows that Sarah's story is quite typical.

The research tells us that at least 10% of the population

are thought to be dyslexic.

So, we're talking about 6 million people in the UK.

Dee's helped many of those diagnosed learn how to manage their condition.

There is no cure for dyslexia.

If you're born dyslexic, you will die dyslexic.

But it's about developing strategies to help you overcome the things

that you might have difficulty with.

So it doesn't have to be a problem in your life

if you're helped to develop those strategies.

Today, Sarah's getting the help she needs.

Happily married with another child, she's still studying at university.

And she receives a disabled students allowance

to help her with her learning.

As a student, you have a DSA loan, so I get assistive technology

and I have a one-to-one support tutor who helps me,

because I struggle with indexes in libraries,

if you need help to find journals, they will help you.

Her grant also pays for her glasses, which have special purple lenses.

They help her to read on white paper,

increasing her reading ability by up to 40%.

With her dyslexia now well under control,

Sarah's a lot happier.

There are so many opportunities

for you to be able to follow your passion.

I organised a huge conference in January,

which was attended by 400 people from all over the UK.

And it was about promoting best practice

and actually all of the amazing creative strength

that people with dyslexia can bring to the workforce.

And, three years on from her diagnosis, alongside studying,

Sarah works to help others with the condition

to get the most from their lives.

I spend most of my time raising awareness of dyslexia

and helping other people,

because I don't want people suffer how I suffered as a child.

Sarah mentors children and adults

to make sure they don't suffer the way she did.

Today, she's watching a school assembly

given by a group of pupils with dyslexia.

Welcome to our presentation.

I used to struggle so much and I used to wish

I was better at English and I used to dread doing spelling tests.

I always forget how to spell tricky words.

I feel better now because I'm improving

and that is because I understand why I struggle.

We want you to know what life is like in our shoes.

We don't have a disability, we just do things differently.

ALL: Thank you for listening.

Thank you very much, everybody.

I can't actually speak cos that's really,

really lovely and it'll make me cry.

What the children just did to stand up there like that

was absolutely incredible, and they should be so proud.

I'm proud of them for doing it.

-How did that feel?

-Good.

-Did you enjoy it?

I think you did a really good job.

Oh, well.

-Work hard. Don't give up.

-We won't.

And for anyone who's struggling with education,

Sarah's got a very simple message.

I'd say to anyone that's had a similar experience to me

to don't give up just yet. It may not have been great the first time,

but it doesn't mean that you can't...

I'm sorry.

You can't go back and do it again and be where you should have been.

You know, you're not stupid, you can do it,

you just need to go about it a different way.

While some people struggle with a condition,

unaware of the state help available,

there are a few who just invent one to take everything they can.

Her only defence was that she was in was in constant pain throughout.

Claiming disability living allowance is spot on

if you're actually in need of it.

But if not, you should know better.

Especially if you also work for the NHS.

It was a blatantly fraudulent claim...from outset.

Back in 2012, investigator for the Department for Work and Pensions,

Graham O'Neill, became involved in a case of fraud

concerning a young NHS worker in Staffordshire.

The case was referred to me following

an anonymous allegation that

Rachel Yapp was in receipt of Disability Living Allowance

from January 2010

at the highest rate, and checked with her employer who confirmed that,

yes, she was working for the NHS.

Ms Yapp's job as a phlebotomist for a local health centre

involved her taking blood samples from people in their homes.

A quick check with her employers

revealed her job was quite an active one,

although she claimed that due to a musculoskeletal disease

and back pain she was unable to walk without a walking stick.

First thing we did was to set up surveillance

to see her coming and going to and from the health centre.

We had a team out one morning of four officers who followed

her around cos we knew where her visits were going to be.

Surveillance footage was taken of her in and out of the car,

in and out of properties, and returning to the health centre.

Ms Yapp used her disability benefits to pay for a motability car,

but the surveillance revealed that she was using this to

make between 8 and 12 home visits a day,

for which she claimed 50p a mile from the NHS.

When Graham watched back the footage,

his suspicions were confirmed.

This is the surveillance of Rachel Yapp

arriving at the health centre in Rugeley for work,

and as she's going in to get her visiting list for the day,

it shows her walking across the car park, and as you can see,

she's walking, carrying bags, with no impediment whatsoever.

In order to build up evidence, a surveillance sting

had to be carried out on a number of occasions.

We did surveillance for four separate days in the car park here

and then a further day

we actually followed her here from the car park

while she was doing her visits so we could see her getting in

and out of the car and going into the different houses

she was collecting the blood from the patients from.

The team even followed her route back in to the health centre,

where she had to walk up a flight of stairs

to her place of work every day.

As with any surveillance, this always proves it for the court

and to the defence...

"This is how they were walking," and obviously Rachel Yapp,

at that point, couldn't deny that it was her

and she appeared to be not disabled in any way.

Not only did Ms Yapp appear to be fit and healthy, but also,

when the team approached her previous employer for further

information, the response was pretty damning.

The NHS knew absolutely nothing about her being disabled in any way,

as far as they were concerned she was as able bodied as anybody else.

And therefore able to carry out the duties in the community on her own.

Not only were her employers unaware of any disability

but following further investigation,

it appeared she'd intended to make a false claim from the very outset.

It looked like the claim was actually false from the day it was made,

because she'd been working for two months

and then was suddenly claiming that her capabilities were so poor

that she required the highest elements

of both DLA mobility and care.

In the face of mounting evidence against her,

Ms Yapp was brought in for questioning.

She basically said, throughout the interview, that she

didn't deny that it was her on the footage and that although

she was capable of doing the job, she was in constant pain throughout.

It was pointed out to her that this didn't seem to be

the case from the footage that we'd got,

but that was her argument all the way through

and she thought that entitled her to the disability benefit.

A year after the surveillance was carried out,

in February 2014, there was enough evidence to bring Ms Yapp to court.

She pleaded guilty in court

and it was sent to Crown Court

for sentencing from the Magistrates Court,

and she was sentenced to six months custodial sentence

in February of this year.

A case of this kind doesn't always result in a custodial penalty,

but given the premeditated nature of the fraud,

the judge deemed it appropriate.

As far as they were concerned it was

a blatantly fraudulent claim... from outset.

Ms Yapp received a stiff punishment,

and Graham is quite clear about the message it sends out.

If you do intend to fraudulently claim these benefits,

then if you are caught, we will take you to court and we will prosecute.

While surveillance stings are an effective tool in catching out some

benefit cheats, there is

another type of sting which is also helping to protect public money.

Because I've caught you misusing the badge,

I need you to come in and see me.

Every year over £46 million of public money goes

uncollected as a result of blue badge fraud.

We'll try and resolve this as quickly as possible.

And Justin Phillips,

Anti-Fraud Manager at Harrow Council, knows only too well

the problem it can cause.

There is a severe impact upon the vulnerable people that cannot

park in the places where they need to park.

So, it's a huge inconvenience to those.

Secondly, it impacts upon council coffers which means that the

shortfall is then passed on to all other residents.

Out in Harrow Town Centre, Sonia, an investigator on Justin's team,

is on a sting to catch blue badge offenders red-handed.

You either get people who are very compliant with you,

they'll be very nice to you - very pleasant conversation -

or you'll get the other half,

where they will get very angry, very quickly.

These two gentlemen are police officers who are conducting

the operation with us.

It's a joint operation.

So, they're here in case anyone decides

to get a little lairy, or vocal.

And today her police escorts have ditched their uniforms.

People tend not to park up, or tend not to return to their cars,

if they see police hanging around.

Police in uniform.

So, it's just an easier to try and remain inconspicuous.

Almost immediately Sonia spots a blue badge.

We are going to check who it's registered to,

might give us a sort of idea.

So, she phones up the office for a bit more information.

Hello, are you all right? Can I ask a favour, can you do a check for me?

Please. It's a new badge, yeah.

The office checks, but as the badge is new

the owner's details aren't on the system.

Not only that, it appears to be from another borough.

Yeah, OK, all right. Cheers, bye.

It's a Hounslow badge, which is a bit odd.

You tend to find people stick within their geographical areas.

You tend to stick in a ten-mile radius,

and if you get badges from all over London you kind of think, "Why?".

I'm not saying no-one travels,

but you usually find that something's amiss.

So, they're going to phone Hounslow and get

the details of the badge holder and see what it comes back with.

In 2013, security measures on blue badges were tightened

and all the information about holders logged onto a system

shared between the London boroughs.

Previously, if we picked up a badge from another borough,

we'd have to try and get through to that borough at the roadside

and find out the details.

Now, because there is a central database which we all have

access to, the person back office can just login straightaway

and give us some basic details.

By the end of 2015, every badge holder should be on the new

system because they only last every three years.

So when they come up for renewal,

they automatically go onto the new system.

Back on the beat in Harrow, the officers confirmed that the

new badge is not yet on the shared database but that the owner

is legitimate, so the team continues to look for other offenders.

I know it sounds a bit corny but you tend to get a gut

feeling with these things as well after a while. People, you know...

If something doesn't seem right, normally it is not right.

I remember one we did a couple of months ago where the badge,

it was the middle of the day and the badge holder was a 12-year-old boy.

We were like,

"What's a 12-year-old boy doing out of school

"in the middle of the day?"

The people who had the badge waited until we had gone all the way

down the road, and came back, got in the car and drove off

and nearly ran over the policewoman who tried to stop them on the way.

It turned out the badge had been stolen about two years previous.

With badge theft being such a big issue,

the council has introduced practical measures to protect owners.

Sometimes you get people's badges are stolen from the dashboard

in their car because people break in and they go

for about £500 on the black market because you have got three years'

free parking, you don't pay congestion charge.

You can actually buy, it is like a holder for your blue badge which is

locked onto the steering wheel so that they can't actually nick it.

And with counterfeit badges so commonplace, in 2012 councils

introduced other new security measures on the badges themselves.

This is a colour copy of one of the new badges that we have got.

As you can see, the serial number now is a lot longer,

it contains information within the serial number.

For example, the month and the year of someone when they were born

so you could actually get some sort of idea

when you're looking at the badge in someone's car

whether it's a male or female or what year they are born in.

So, for example, if someone who is supposed to be 80 years old,

if someone comes back to the car who's barely 30,

you know that is not going to be the badge holder.

In addition, we have now got a hologram here and also,

whereas the badge holder's picture used to be stuck on which made

it very easy for people to try and peel them off, they are now digitally

put onto there so they can't be taken off and replaced with another photo.

In spite of the new features, badge fraud is still prevalent and only

last year Sonia dealt with an interesting case of counterfeiting.

One of our parking attendants had seen this car parked with

a disabled badge on it and noticed that the badge had been

altered to show an expiry date of being 2018.

Badges don't last beyond three years so the fact that it

was as long as five years,

it immediately gave calls for concern that the badge was not legitimate.

With suspicions raised, the team contacted Ealing Council

who had issued the badge, to find out who the owner was.

The badge belonged to a person who had actually died in February 2012.

Ealing had not had the badge back.

The fraud team and police tracked down the person using the badge

and arrested her.

She admitted that she had fraudulently altered the badge

from 2013 to 2018

and also that she hadn't returned the badge when her mother had died.

The badge offender was ordered to appear before a magistrate.

She pleaded guilty.

She was given a two-year conditional discharge, was ordered to

pay £750 towards our costs and pay a £15 victim surcharge.

It is not common for us to take a misuse of a badge to court.

It is only the most serious allegations that we actually

take to court, when someone has maybe altered the badge or the badge

is stolen. The general running, the day-to-day ones,

we try to deal with by the way of a caution

and a contribution towards the costs of the investigation.

We were happy with the outcome, it sent out a strong

message that this sort of misuse will not be tolerated.

Successes like this mean Sonia's keen

to keep up the presence on the streets.

We have been running now for a few hours, about three hours,

and we have had a lot of positive feedback from the community.

So that is always a good thing.

We would count this as a successful operation.

Back in north London,

what started out as a routine benefits check had

spiralled into a case involving multiple fraudulent claims,

several properties and three investigating teams from the

Department for Work and Pensions,

not to mention two local authorities.

It is one of those cases that starts off small and then,

before you know it, all different angles start appearing

and it becomes a massive case.

With over £50,000 in savings, Manzoor Quader and Hannah Grigson,

the owners of two properties had falsified official

documents in order to claim housing, council tax

and income benefits over almost a decade.

They were pretending to live apart for profit.

Purely to make money out of a housing benefit system which is

meant for people who require money to pay their rent.

For all the authorities involved in the case, it wasn't only the crime

but the audacity of the couple's fraud that left a bad taste.

When you look through their claim forms, there's

letters from him saying, "I've only got my housing benefit to live on,

"why are you delaying processing my claim?" This sort of thing.

Which sticks in the throat a bit, that he was writing that

even though he was owning properties and doing quite well for himself.

It is a lot of stuff to juggle.

it is like any deception, any lie, when you start it you

feel like you can control it but it gets out of hand

and that is why you're going to get rumbled sooner or later.

In 2014, the evidence against them complete,

Quader and Grigson were brought to Wood Green Crown Court.

When it came to prosecuting the case, what we had was multiple lease

agreements which were fraudulent, they were made up for the purpose.

We had evidence that they owned property that they hadn't declared.

We had evidence that the children

and they were living together at a different property.

And we had evidence that they had received benefits

they weren't entitled to.

For our purposes, that proved the fraud.

With overwhelming evidence,

there appeared to be only one course of action for the couple.

This is where Mr Quader and Ms Grigson pleaded guilty

to all counts of fraudulently claiming benefits.

The total figure was just in excess of £183,000.

They were sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment.

It is a significant level of deception to create

documents for the purposes of committing fraud.

To purchase properties and then rent them out and lie on a weekly,

monthly, yearly basis to the local council in order to receive

benefits, in two separate areas, that you weren't entitled to.

They were convicted of five counts of fraud,

but incredibly for Quader and Grigson, the lying didn't end there.

The judge gave a 10-month sentence

and reduced it by two months on the basis

that their children were in care.

When the probation officer went down to talk to them about this,

they discovered that actually they weren't in care, they were

just living with a relative, which is not the same thing.

This made the judge really angry and the judge called them back in

and extended it back to 12 months.

So the fact that they were manipulating still at that

stage says all you need to know.

Taking advantage of the judge's leniency,

-again on a false premise, really.

-Yes.

Right up to the end they were trying to make things

better for themselves just by lying and deception.

With the couple behind bars, both Barnet

and Enfield Councils are determined to recover their losses.

This is still going through the court process under the Proceeds of

Crime Act and it is likely that they will have to pay that money back.

We take a very zero tolerance attitude to fraud.

We will investigate you if you commit fraud and we will recover the funds.