Costa del Con Saints and Scroungers

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

We estimated that he's stolen at least £34 million in income tax

and possibly another four million on top of that.

This is 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 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 committed to

catching criminals who steal from you and me - the British taxpayer.

But we also hear stories from people who genuinely

need help from public money.

I just didn't know where to turn, really, or what to do.

From a father's point of view, I would have done anything to

take that pain away from him, because that was unbearable.

That was tough, really tough.

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

I didn't know there was anything better out there

until she started at the Institute.

Coming up, a fraudster claiming benefits

to fund a secret life in Spain...

Is it that cut and dried, then? The benefits shouldn't be paid?

Yes, that's a capital asset,

so his claim form was false from the outset.

He hadn't declared that property.

..a surveillance team catch out a baseball coach

claiming disability benefits...

And there he is, he just sprinted from a standing start,

bent down confidently, picked up that ball and threw it.

All the very things he said he is unable to do.

..and a family determined to provide a happy future for their daughter.

I think some children with Down's syndrome

perhaps don't realise how different they are,

but I think Meg gets that she can't quite do things.

So her behaviour echoes, sometimes,

that frustration at not being quite able to do what other people do.

Sun, sea and sand offer a lifestyle many Brits crave.

It's one that some seek out when they head towards retirement,

but life abroad also attracts criminals on the fiddle.

When we discovered he had assets abroad,

we believed that he would not have been entitled to housing benefit,

council tax benefit, or employment and support allowance.

Having lived in the UK for most of his life,

Nigel Hadley is one of over 700,000 Brits

who moved to Spain to start a new life on the Costas.

The name Nigel Hadley

was first brought to DWP's attention in about 2013

following an on-off allegation that he appeared to be living in Spain,

or spending a lot of time in Spain despite being on benefits.

However, just because you're on the golden shores of the Med,

it doesn't mean you're immune from investigations.

It just means the authorities have to work a little bit harder

to catch you.

In 2012, fraud investigator Karen Evans

from Pembrokeshire Council

received a tipoff about council tenant Nigel Hadley,

who'd moved back to the UK in 2009 after spending a decade in Marbella.

I understand that Nigel Hadley,

after he'd been living in Spain for some years and working in Spain,

had a stroke and was therefore unable to work,

and without being able to work, I think he'd decided that he would

come back to this country, which is the reason for him coming back.

Hadley was reliant on government help

and applied for benefits and somewhere to live.

Apparently, after giving up his life in Marbella,

he wanted the next best thing.

Tenby is known as the jewel in Pembrokeshire's crown.

It's a beautiful little coastal town, very popular with tourists

and lots of people would love to live here.

Nigel Hadley was awarded a council property

here in Tenby on the basis that he was homeless

and was very lucky to be given that opportunity.

But, if the information from the tipoff was accurate,

it seemed that it wasn't good enough for Hadley,

who was allegedly going away for three to four months at a time.

I visited Nigel Hadley in July 2012 to check whether he was resident,

whether he'd vacated or if he had a temporary absence.

When I called at the property,

he was at home and I was able to discuss the situation with him.

He advised me that he did spend periods of time in Spain

and that he had relatives out there, but that he was only out

there for a maximum of two to three weeks at a time and that he'd only

been to Spain three times since he was allocated the council property.

But I was still suspicious as to how they could be possibly spending

so much time in Spain whilst in receipt of benefits

and I decided, as a consequence of that, to ask him to keep me informed

of all this temporary absences and to try and dig a little deeper.

So Karen trawled through council records to see

if she could find any clues to confirm her suspicions.

Nigel Hadley had previously lived in Pembrokeshire

and owned a substantial property.

I discovered that he had actually given us a forwarding address

on his council tax records that was a care of address in Spain.

That was going back to 2001, so I was concerned then

that if he had given us an address in Spain at that time, that he could

have actually purchased a property there or owned a property there.

Karen also discovered that after he moved back to the UK in 2009, Hadley

claimed to be homeless and that he was forced to live with friends.

If you own a property in this country or abroad

and you then claim homelessness, you're not truly homeless

and under those circumstances, under normal circumstances, you wouldn't

be allocated a council property based on the fact that you were homeless.

Anyone with assets worth more than £16,000 doesn't qualify

for income support and it would affect other benefits.

If Hadley did own a property in Spain, not only was he not homeless,

but any property he had was likely to be worth more than the threshold.

After I had my suspicions about the address in Spain, I contacted

the Department For Work And Pensions, their fraud investigation service,

to see if they were able to actually obtain details of

the address in Spain to see who the legal owner of the property may be.

Cases like Hadley's are known as abroad fraud.

It's a problem with which the head

of the DWP's fraud investigation unit,

Jackie Raja, has become very familiar.

Jackie, it's a new term for me, what is abroad fraud?

Abroad fraud refers to any instance

where a customer who's making a claim in the UK,

we then find out that there is some connection

with a potential fraud abroad.

So what are the main types of fraud that you witness, then?

Erm, some of the main types are, perhaps,

where a relative has died abroad

and obviously people who are British citizens can get, for example,

a state pension abroad quite legitimately.

But if they die, sometimes that pension is continued to be

claimed by relatives at home.

It may be, actually, just moving abroad and not telling us,

it may be claiming a benefit in the UK that is not transportable

and failing to declare, it may be changing your circumstances

when you are abroad and not telling us about that.

So there's a whole range of different things

that constitute abroad fraud.

So are we talking about sizeable amounts of money for the country?

Yes, abroad fraud constitutes, at the moment, possibly around

£120 million of lost public funds from the total money lost to fraud.

Until recently, there wasn't a department dedicated

to dealing with the sun-kissed scammer,

but in 2008, all this changed

with the arrival of the DWP's abroad fraud team.

So why was a specialist team created in the first place?

It came to our attention that we were getting more

and more allegations of benefit fraud involving people

who lived abroad, so that alerted us to

the fact that we probably needed to put some more resource into

looking at this type of fraud, and since then, the team has grown.

They are the primary contact for any allegation where abroad fraud

is the primary offence that we think has been committed

and they are the people that will make direct contact

with the people in the cities or the offices, consulates,

or our own offices, indeed, who are based in,

for example, Spain, to get the information locally.

And after Karen became suspicious that Nigel Hadley owned a property

in Spain, the abroad fraud team took on the case in September 2012.

So...Nigel Hadley - when did you first hear that name?

Nigel Hadley first came to the attention of the DWP through

an allegation received, I think, from a neighbour,

which was sent through the local authority to say that

he seemed to be spending rather a lot of time in Spain for somebody

who was on benefit and was not able to work.

And that was what you knew about him up to that point,

he was receiving benefits because he wasn't able to work?

Yeah, he was in receipt of employment support allowance

and housing benefits and council tax benefits and had been for some time.

OK, so where do you go next in your investigation?

You're a little bit suspicious, or concerned

that someone's claiming benefits while they have

a substantial asset overseas. Does that change things for you?

Yes, it starts to ring some alarm bells

and it was judged that this was a case worth investigating.

Abroad fraud is an issue for the department

of people not telling us what they're doing

and so the case was referred to our intelligence unit, who made

contact with officials in Spain who work with the DWP

very closely to see if there was any record of him having any

property or asset in Spain.

And is it like it is in the UK?

Because here we have a Land Registry which has a name next

to every property which you can access fairly readily.

Is it as straightforward in a country like Spain?

Yes, we have people in Spain who work

partly with the Spanish Authority

and partly for the DWP specifically dealing with benefit claims.

And there is a Land Registry in Spain

and the staff that we've got out there looked at the Land Registry and found, indeed,

that Nigel Hadley did have a property registered in his name

in Spain, entirely in his name, and it was on the Spanish records.

Paint me a picture, what was it like?

Was it the sort of place I'd like to go on holiday?

Well, the property was subsequently valued at about £90,000, so I would

guess it was quite a pleasant villa in Marbella, from what I understand.

Right. And is it that cut and dried, then?

The benefits shouldn't be paid?

Yes, that's a capital asset,

Nigel Hadley had declared on his form that he had no property

or assets either at home or abroad, so his claim form was false

from the outset, he hadn't declared that property.

If we'd have known about that, we would have done some

investigation into the value of that property

and he wouldn't have been entitled to benefit

because that would have counted as an asset that exceeded

the amount of money that you're allowed to have

whilst you're on benefits.

The team had also discovered that Hadley had applied

for a Spanish passport and was clearly intent on sunning

himself in Spain whilst stealing benefits he wasn't entitled to.

Later, would the team be able to convict Hadley and, vitally,

get back the money he'd scammed?

Now, while there is a small minority who lie and cheat their way

to lining their own pockets courtesy of the taxpayer,

there are some people who don't let anything in life hold them back.

Megan Wilcox is one of the country's most up-and-coming young riders,

but this 12-year-old has come a long way to achieve success in her sport.

-I walk and leap, usually, and then we try a bit harder.

-OK.

I'll see you in a minute.

When Megan was born in February 2002 with Down's syndrome,

her parents had no idea how it could affect

her chances of a full and active life.

Our first reaction when she was born,

the first one they talk about, you having to grieve for the child

you think you're going to have, because it hasn't quite

gone as you expect and I think that when people talk to us about...

You have to get used to the idea that you're not going to have

a child who may grow up, go to university, get married,

have babies, etc, etc and you have to, kind of,

come to terms with that.

I remember the feeling of complete, kind of, failure.

But once Megan's diagnosis had sunk in, Rachel and Graham

were able to enjoy the early stages of parenthood.

Meg was always quite a determined character, she was always

quite active and in terms of her developmental milestones, she made

a lot of those in what they would call ordinary boundaries,

so she walked before she was 18 months and

she sat up before she was seven months, which is

kind of what they would consider ordinary - I hate that word -

but within ordinary milestones.

Some children with Down's syndrome

take longer to make those milestones.

The family were reluctant to ask for any sort of benefits,

but when Rachel decided to go back to work after Megan's

younger brother Jamie was born,

she discovered she wouldn't be able to do a full-time job

AND give Megan the care she needed,

so the family was forced to turn to the local authority for help.

Meg receives Disability Living Allowance

to help with the additional care she needs, the costs involved

of hospital visits and appointments, which, kind of, has helped,

perhaps, my need not to go back to work full-time.

I work part-time and Meg's additional appointments

would have made working full-time quite difficult,

so that Disability Living Allowance has helped,

you know, meet those needs.

The family was able to find a routine that helped them

to cope until Megan was old enough to go to school.

Graham and Rachel then found themselves facing

a vital decision about their daughter's future.

When we started looking at schools for Meg,

we did look into the possibility of her going to a special school,

but we felt at the time it wasn't appropriate to Meg's needs.

She didn't need to be in a special school,

she'd been in a mainstream playgroup without additional support

and it wasn't necessary. She was mixing with ordinary children,

so there was no option - she was going to mainstream school

because it was the right thing for her.

Megan had lots of friends at school where she was happy

and made good progress, but as she's got older, she's become more

and more upset as the gap between her and her classmates has grown.

Obviously she has a learning difficulty, so acquiring any

knowledge takes longer than for the majority of children.

And latterly, the hardest thing for her has been

the social side of school as she doesn't mature at the same rate

as her peers, that she's not quite on the same level

as her peers socially.

So I love you so much.

Understandably, it's had a knock-on effect on Megan's emotional

well-being and behaviour and despite the best efforts of her parents

and teachers, she's begun to feel increasingly isolated.

She definitely has levels of frustration that she can't do

what other people do, she can't do what her peers do.

I think some children with Down's syndrome, perhaps,

don't realise how different they are,

but I think Meg gets that she can't quite do things.

She is close enough that she understands,

so her behaviour echoes, sometimes,

that frustration at not being quite able to do what other people do.

But Rachel and Graham have always known that this stage would come,

so, from a young age, they've made sure that Megan's had

other interests on which she can focus.

Meg's interest in horse riding probably was kick-started by me.

We were swimming through the physiotherapy unit

at Harrogate Hospital

and then they used the riding as a way of moving children on.

After that, and I'd seen the photos,

so, from Meg being about six months I'd, kind of,

asked the question, "When can we go riding, please?"

How you doing?

Oh, it's great to see you.

Megan's physiotherapist is Lucy Longden,

who also works as a volunteer for

the Follifoot Park Disabled Riding Group.

For little ones with Down's syndrome,

their muscle tone is very low, so they're very floppy.

So they're often late walking,

late doing all their motor skills,

so it gives them some core strength work because they have two hold on

to the pony when they're sitting on it,

so it's really good for posture.

They don't realise that they're doing it,

they're having a bit of fun on the pony and so it's probably

a good physio session that they haven't actually even known about.

So we find it really helpful.

It's very good for communication

and that's often something that they find difficult.

As Rachel has ridden for most of her life,

she was aware of how much it could benefit Megan.

She loved it from the start.

She loved being on the ponies.

I think she's always enjoyed being able to dictate what happened.

Rachel was soon taking Megan to the riding group every weekend

and it was clear they'd found a place

where Megan felt she fitted in.

She loved the people that we went to meet

and as she was there more often, she had a social group of friends

that had like interests, which was always something that was

really important to her and that, I think,

for someone with her level of need is priceless.

Since coming to the centre, Megan has made some very close

friends and their common bond over the horses has allowed her

confidence to blossom. By pushing herself in something she loves,

she's now more accepting of the things that limit her.

Do you want a whip?

-No, I don't need a whip.

-She's got a good voice.

Ever since I was young, I always wanted to go on horses

because the first time that I got on,

I felt like I needed to be happy, so I started horse riding.

Now I've grown and now I can feel like I've never felt like,

I'm really happy at the end of this time

and I feel like I'm so happy.

Once she started to feel comfortable at the riding school,

Megan began to show signs of genuine talent

and soon started riding with children far beyond her age.

I think she was the youngest by seven or eight years.

They were all so much bigger and stronger than she was,

but she began to do the things that they were doing

and her riding began to progress and that was

when she began to take more interest in riding, generally, as a sport

and her desire to do what other people were doing grew.

"I want to do this myself, I want to do this by my own,"

would have been her words, probably.

Her skill levels grew, that she was able to be more independent

and to ride more independently.

What was so vital for Megan was that, rather than

feeling like she was being left behind and increasingly

distant to her friends, she now had something in which she could

excel and that she was proud to tell everyone about.

Meg then started to show more desire to ride at the highest level

and that involves competition, as far as she was concerned.

I started to look for Riding For The Disabled competitions

and it was the beginning of 2013 we, sort of, made the move

to go to a Riding For The Disabled Association Centre in Leeds

and she took part in her first dressage competition

on one of their ponies, and that really was the,

sort of, the start of her desire to want to do more and more.

Being her first-ever event, Megan competed in

the under 16's category and she finished in second place.

We were really proud of her, so we're quite a sporty,

competitive family, anyway.

For her to compete

and to really be competing on a par with other children was

definitely a proud moment and, yeah, we were right behind her,

wanting to give her that chance and actually, to sort of, maybe,

fulfil that potential that she was showing.

Maybe she did have some talent and she could achieve something more.

This meant riding more regularly and fellow young disabled rider,

Izzy Palmer, offered Megan the use of her pony, Dunkie,

who Megan now looks after at stables just minutes for the family home.

So she started to ride Dunkie a couple of times a week

and then that grew and grew and she's now ours to look after

and Meg gets to ride her pretty much

when she wants, which has allowed her to practise more

and more and to really move her riding on to the next level.

That led Megan to qualify for the dressage event

at the Riding For The Disabled Association's

national championships in Gloucestershire.

It's a huge, huge event over three days with,

sort of, 400 competitors and she competed on Sunday morning

and she finished fifth in one of her classes,

which, as a national achievement at her stage, is just brilliant

and the plan is to go again next year and win.

And Megan now has her sights firmly set on the top and hopes

to emulate the success of fellow para-riders

Sophie Wells and Izzy Palmer.

My dream, well, I want to be competing,

showjumping and sprinting.

I'd love to enter the Olympics and my two...

The two that inspire me the most are Izzy Palmer and Sophie Wells

because Sophie Wells was a paralympic rider who rides Nocchi

and Izzy Palmer, she's been really nice to me and when she

arrives, I'm like, "Oh, my word, you have done incredible,

"Izzy, I love you so much."

Keen to share the news of her recent success, Megan and Rachel have come

down to see staff and friends at the riding school where it all started.

I love it. It's that, kind of, so many good memories here.

It's always nice to come back

and see the new ponies as well as all the old faces,

it's really lovely.

Seeing her on these ponies makes me feel quite nostalgic.

She rode here for such a long time.

It's really emotional seeing... Particularly on the back of...

She's just been to the national championships

this weekend and seeing her do this on the back of that, kind of,

brings that journey into perspective.

Riding trainer Lucy is very proud of Megan's progress.

From our point of view, it is absolutely unique.

She is a very special little girl who started just going through

the ranks here and has actually moved on

and moved away from here up to another rung.

Good old Meg, absolutely brilliant.

Look at him, he's so big now!

Over the years, Lucy's also witnessed

other changes in Megan's life.

Her confidence has just grown and grown.

She would never have spoken as she did today, she would never

have talked like that in the early days, so it's lovely.

And it's clear to see the effect

that the riding school has had on Megan.

Is it good being back here?

-We've not been for a while, have we?

-No.

Do you know what makes me laugh?

When you stand at the fence with your head through the bars,

you've spent hours like that,

standing on the fence with your head through the bars,

-watching people ride and jump and say, "I want to do that!"

-I remember that.

This is a place that Megan can really call her own.

It's quite surreal,

because I haven't been here for quite a while and now I'm back

and I feel really happy,

because I feel like I'm back in my comfort zone

and I like to be here, sometimes.

I used to come here to see the other children, or whatever

and I just get really...get warmed up

and I feel like I'm going to be confident soon.

You're being confident when you're here and you see all your friends.

-Yeah.

-It's nice, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Rachel knows the role that the riding school

has played in Megan's amazing journey.

Without the opportunities provided by Lucy and the volunteers,

we certainly wouldn't be achieving what we're beginning to achieve.

You know, they've given us that possibility, that chance

to start and we will for ever, ever be grateful for that opportunity.

The ability to ride has given Megan the freedom to get on a pony

and be just like any other young girl.

We are incredibly proud of Meg.

I get really quite emotional about what she's achieved

and where she's come from.

She copes with quite a lot and she does really well.

And I'm proud of the fact that she is challenging stereotypes,

she is challenging perceptions of children with Down's syndrome.

She's not a wallflower that sits and lets life pass her by,

she is a very determined young lady and perhaps, given some

opportunities, she may achieve something brilliant.

There are plenty of people determined to make

the most of every opportunity they have, but there are a tiny minority

who prefer to steal from the state in search of an easy life.

Baseball is a physical game, played by athletic sportsmen

and women with a range of skills.

Despite being Americans' national pastime,

the sport actually originated in England in the 18th century.

The town of Plymouth has its very own baseballing hero.

Martin Wilson was the coach of the Plymouth Mariners and he was

so respected in the local community that a baseball ground had been

named Wilson Field to recognise his contribution to the sport.

But away from the field, in 2012,

his local legend came to the attention of Steve Cowell,

the fraud manager at the Plymouth arm

of the Department For Work And Pensions.

Martin Wilson claimed incapacity benefit in 2001.

This is a benefit for people who are unable to work because of illness.

Wilson had developed severe rheumatoid arthritis in 2001

and his condition was so bad he was deemed eligible for DLA.

This is Martin Wilson's initial claim

for disability living allowance.

On this form, he's represented himself as severely disabled.

He stated that he'd use a walking stick,

but found it very difficult to hold on to a walking stick

due to pain in his hands, stated he couldn't bend over without pain

and that he needed someone with him when he was out.

So, taking this at face value,

this is a case of someone who is severely disabled who needed

quite a high degree of support outside and inside the home.

Wilson was undoubtedly suffering when he put in his initial claim

and was receiving the highest rate of disability living allowance,

meaning that in total, he was receiving over £200 a week.

It was made clear to Martin Wilson on his benefit claim forms

and on renewal notices that it was his personal responsibility

to declare any changes in his circumstances.

But over ten years after Wilson's original claim,

Steve received a tipoff from a member of the public.

The department received an allegation that Martin Wilson was in fact

working while claiming his disability benefit

and stated that the nature of the work he was undertaking -

quite strenuous, physical building work - was incompatible with

the declarations he was making to the department.

As with all allegations, Steve and his team started to investigate.

We checked benefit claim records to see if he had told us

about any changes in his circumstances,

and, in fact, he hadn't - he was still telling the department

that he had been disabled since 2001,

and, in fact, that his condition had actually worsened.

Steve had also gathered information that Wilson was still coaching

and playing for the Plymouth Mariners.

It was time to find out for himself if the allegations were true.

The next step was to build a picture of exactly

what Martin Wilson's capabilities - his physical capabilities - were.

As there had been no changes declared to the department,

we decided to undertake a covert surveillance operation to get

first-hand recorded footage of his activities.

Based on the intelligence he'd gathered,

Steve didn't have much trouble finding Wilson.

Because we'd had specific dates and times

that Martin Wilson was undertaking his baseball activities,

we were able to target the surveillance activity

at those times and dates.

Because of the nature of his work, one of the investigators who'd

carried out the surveillance has asked to remain anonymous.

Well, this is Wilson Field, the main baseball diamond in Plymouth

where the matches are held for the Plymouth Mariners.

It's a good spot to do surveillance.

The majority of the surveillance we do is what's known

as covert surveillance, which is undercover surveillance.

But in a situation like this, it's quite possible

to do open surveillance - you can actually use a camera,

it's not unexpected that somebody would come and actually take a film

of the actual baseball match going on, or activities within the park.

But the surveillance team were taking nothing for granted,

because if their cover was blown, Wilson would know all about them.

The two of us were sat on the bench watching the game

just about to start and some of the actual players

from the Mariners team came up and had a chat with us

and, sort of, said it was really nice to see some people along

watching the baseball and they even commented that it was, you know,

a great idea to bring a camera along,

they wished they'd brought theirs.

But what the players and the coach didn't know was that everything

they filmed was going straight back to the fraud department at the DWP.

This is Martin Wilson with his name emblazoned on the back

of his baseball shirt.

Martin Wilson is leading a practice session at Wilson Field,

the field named after him.

Very active here, despite the fact that he told the department

he often used a stick when he was outdoors because of his imbalance,

that he had a fear of falling over and needed somebody with him.

Martin has now decided to take a turn at batting.

He stated on his claim form that he was unable to grip,

that he was unable to lift his arms above his shoulders,

but here you see him gripping confidently,

swinging the bat, the baseball bat

and lifting it above his shoulders waiting for the ball to be pitched.

And there he is, he's just sprinted from a standing start,

bent down confidently, picked up that ball and threw it.

All the very things that he said he was unable to do

when claiming disability living allowance.

It was just almost like the best possible thing

we could have had as evidence to put before the decision-makers

who question Martin Wilson's entitlement.

The evidence was so convincing that after just three trips

to Wilson Field, the man after whom it was named

was brought into DWP's fraud offices to be questioned under caution.

When interviewed, Martin Wilson initially stated

that his condition had worsened, that he needed more support

than he even declared on his benefit claim declarations.

However, when showed the wealth of evidence,

the surveillance footage that we had, he was clearly at a loss

to explain it and agreed that his condition had dramatically improved.

Having thrown Wilson a curveball, the team passed all the evidence

to another department who'd be able to work out how much he'd stolen.

The benefit decision-maker had decided that £14,500

worth of benefits had been wrongly paid to Martin Wilson because

he hadn't correctly informed the department of his true circumstances.

It was another swing and another miss for Wilson.

Obviously, from a, sort of, professional point of view,

it feels very good if you actually get sufficient

evidence to satisfy the decision-maker.

After, sort of, three occasions... You know, it justifies your job.

In February 2014, Wilson went before Plymouth Magistrates Court,

charged with benefit fraud.

Martin Wilson pleaded guilty in view of the wealth of evidence that

we'd collected showing that he was substantially more capable

than he'd represented.

In fact, the judge stated that he was significantly more capable than

he had declared to the department.

He was sentenced to four months' imprisonment,

which was suspended for two years,

and he was told that he had to pay back the £14,500 that he'd stolen.

Wilson had gone from local hero to convicted fraudster,

and, for Steve, it's a simple case of give and take.

People who commit benefit fraud, like Martin Wilson,

it isn't a victimless crime, they are taking money

from the taxpayer, from the community and from those more deserving.

Thanks to Steve and the team, the money Wilson stole

is now on its way back into the public purse.

It was a very efficient exercise and I think the sentence

and Martin Wilson's guilty plea showed that the team

had conducted a great investigation.

With determined fraudsters looking for ways to con their way

to our cash, sometimes stopping them takes drastic measures

and occasionally you might need a new law or two.

This country has a proud history of providing council housing

for those in need, but now it's in very high demand.

There is a shortage of social housing properties

and affordable rent properties within the majority of the London boroughs.

But the annual cost of people fraudulently claiming

housing benefit in the UK is £1.8 billion a year,

some of which is made up from people subletting their council properties.

If people sublet their properties,

chances are they have somewhere else to live and so that means

that the rightful person isn't living in that property.

There are a number of other people who are on

waiting lists for council properties who need these properties.

Up to 2013, the only punishment that could be handed out to

the crooks carrying out subletting was to take their property from them

so it could be given to those in desperate need.

But recently, all that has changed.

The Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013

came into effect on 15 October 2013.

Having this new act has made subletting

a criminal offence in its own right.

Now people are aware that subletting either their council property

or their housing association property is in itself a fraud.

Several authorities have been quick to enforce the new laws

and stamp out an unnecessary burden on the housing system.

And so this act, which enables us to prosecute

and then repossess properties if people are subletting,

frees up those properties for genuine people who need social housing

and will abide by the tenancy rules.

Chantel had a case passed to her from the council audit team

that demonstrated why these new laws are so vital.

They had received a tipoff from a subtenant of a council property

who advised them that he'd been renting this property

for approximately a month and had suspicions that it was

a council tenancy that had been illegally sublet to him.

The tipoff gave the name of the landlord as Daniel Calvin Harvey.

Once we got the referral through, our first point of call was to go

and interview the subtenant

and then take a witness statement from him which he was happy to do.

Mr Harvey had also provided his tenant with paperwork.

Mr Harvey created a false tenancy, then gave that to the subtenant

and in it he said that he was the landlord

and charged £650 per month in rent.

He also took £650 as a deposit for the property.

But Chantel was having difficulty tracking down

her target face-to-face.

She'd given Mr Harvey numerous opportunities to explain himself,

but he'd failed to attend every time.

Although Mr Harvey did not turn up for any interviews under caution,

we believed that we had enough evidence

to prosecute for the sublet.

So we put a prosecution file together, it was authorised

and then sent to our legal department.

And this meant that his fate was in the hands of the courts.

Mr Harvey was convicted on 31 July 2013 at Stratford Magistrates' Court

for two offences under the Fraud Act 2006,

the first being fraud by false representation and the second being

failure to disclose information to Newham Council.

Mr Harvey was sentenced to three weeks in prison

for each offence to run concurrently.

Mr Harvey had to give back the keys to his property,

which was freed up to be given to someone who genuinely needed it.

His receiving a custodial sentence was quite significant for the council

in that it sent out a message to others that subletting your property

is an offence, we will prosecute you

and the likelihood is that you will go to prison for it.

New powers and resources that investigators have mean that

no matter how far benefit cheats go to spend their stolen sterling,

fraud departments will come after them.

Back in Pembrokeshire, a joint operation involving the council,

the Department For Work And Pensions

and the DWP's abroad fraud team had discovered that scammer

Nigel Hadley owned a property in Spain while claiming benefits

and living in a council property in the picturesque town of Tenby.

If Mr Hadley had declared his property correctly,

he wouldn't have qualified for any benefit.

Hadley had repeatedly denied owning a property here or abroad,

so DWP fraud investigator

Carol Davies brought him in to be interviewed in July 2013.

Mr Hadley came in and he appeared as though he didn't understand

what was going on.

He said he was quite happy he hadn't done anything wrong

and he couldn't understand why he was being interviewed,

he'd got no money and he'd told us everything.

However, when confronted with the evidence

that we'd received from the abroad fraud team,

Mr Hadley was taken aback

and he asked for the interview to be suspended

so he could consult his solicitor before being interviewed again.

So, two weeks later, enough time to top up his tan,

Hadley returned with a solicitor who read out a prepared statement.

In the statement, he said that he had agreed that he had failed

to inform the council of a change in his circumstances

regarding the property.

This was in fact untrue, because Mr Hadley had actually owned

the property at the time he first made his claim.

He also declined to answer any further questions,

replied "no comment" to any further questions put to him.

Hadley was charged with three counts of benefit fraud and bailed.

The team had calculated that he had stolen over £25,000 in benefits.

Mr Hadley appeared in Haverfordwest Magistrates' Court

in October 2013 where he actually pleaded not guilty.

Due to the amount of the overpayment, the magistrates

decided to send the case to Swansea Crown Court

to be heard there.

He then changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced.

So owning a villa and claiming benefit for two and a half years,

what kind of sentence does that get you?

At the court, the judge awarded him

a prison sentence of nine months that was suspended for 18 months,

and he was also ordered to pay £1,200 towards

the cost of the prosecution, as well.

Unusually, in this case, the judge actually made an order

at the same time as he handed out the suspended prison sentence

that Mr Hadley was ordered to pay back the full sum,

around £26,000, on the basis that

he had £81,000 available in his property.

So Mr Hadley was actually given six months from the date of his

conviction to realise the capital from his property and to repay us.

He didn't meet that deadline and he has made an application that

because of the property market crash in Spain and the Euro problems,

that he needs further time to pay or to sell his property.

He's been given until December this year to do that.

So somewhere in Spain, or somewhere in Marbella,

there could be a villa going at quite a knockdown price,

that's what we're saying?

Quite possibly, yes, I'm sure he'd appreciate if someone bought it,

and we certainly would, so he could pay us back.

And that's money that goes back into the public purse,

-where it should have been in the first place?

-Yes, yes.

Thank you, Jackie.

Thanks to DWP's specialist foreign team, Hadley can say adios

to his plans of swanning off into the sunset with our stolen cash.

The abroad fraud team had given us some good information

and it felt good to actually stop a claim that was so blatantly false

from the outset and detracting from people who really need the benefit.

We thought it was a good result all round.