The five criminals used a combination of fake identities and real customers to make roughly 6,000 fraudulent Universal Credit claims over four-and-a-half years.
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A gang of five Bulgarians have pulled off Britain's biggest ever benefits fraud, raking in almost £54million after using thousands of fake ID claims to fuel their luxurious lifestyles.
The crooks, who now face years in jail, used a combination of fake identities and real customers to make roughly 6,000 fraudulent Universal Credit claims during a four-and-a-half year spree, operating from three 'benefits factories' in north London.
The enormous haul of money gained from their 'complex financial web' of claims was laundered through a number of accounts, then withdrawn in cash – with £750,000 in bank notes found stuffed in suitcases at one of their homes.
Investigators who arrested the gang and searched their properties also discovered hundreds of 'claim packs', containing forged and false documents, and more than 900 digital devices.
They used their ill-gotten gains to fund luxury lifestyles, buying designer clothes, watches and even a high-end Audi sports car.
On social media they shamelessly flaunted expensive spa breaks and posted snaps of them holidaying abroad.
When faced with the large amount of incriminating evidence, which included encrypted messages, CCTV footage, forged documents, seized digital devices and bank statements, Galina Nikolova, 38, Stoyan Stoyanov, 27,
Tsvetka Todorova, 52,
Gyunesh Ali, 33,
and Patritsia Paneva, 26,
all entered guilty pleas at Wood Green Crown Court, which were yesterday accepted by the CPS.
...between October 2016 and May 2021, the organised criminal group made about 6,000 fraudulent claims.
They were supported by forged documents including fictitious tenancy agreements, counterfeit payslips and forged letters from landlords, employers and GPs.
If any claims were rejected, the fraudsters would persevere until they were approved.
All five were arrested on the 5th of May 2021, as part of the Met's Operation Volcanic, but Ali fled to Bulgaria following his release under investigation.
He was extradited back to Britain in February last year, and eventually admitted conspiracy to make false representations, possession of articles for use in a fraud and possessing criminal property.
All five will be sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on the 28th of May.
I would guess COVID was their most profitable period by far though. Outside that it's at least somewhat challenging to commit fraud. During that period anyone could have done it
People from communist and ex-communist states are the best at defrauding the government. Cubans are responsible for like half of the Medicare fraud in America, and they’re such a tiny, tiny percentage of the population.
What's there to discuss, it's pretty common knowledge the UK is basically an ATM for foreign nationals. Its expected when you have a very generous welfare state and open borders.
What's there to discuss, it's pretty common knowledge the UK is basically an ATM for foreign nationals. Its expected when you have a very generous welfare state and open borders.
Inspector Vassil Panayotov, a detective from the small town of Sliven in Bulgaria, first became suspicious after he noticed locals sporting designer clothing.
The Bulgarian city of Sliven has become notorious after five members of a criminal gang admitted to a scam that may have stolen as much as £200 million a year from the British government
The Eastern European gang hijacked 6,000 identities to make claims for Universal Credit and used the names of children living in Bulgaria as part of the five year scam.
The gang admitted £53.9m of fraudulent claims, and at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday two of the gang members received what are thought to be the longest sentences ever passed down for benefit fraud.
Prosecutors said Galina Nikolova started making fraudulent claims for Universal Credit in October 2016 - before Brexit changed the rules on EU citizens claiming benefits. She was working alongside another Bulgarian, Gyunesh Ali.
Police bodycam footage shows the moment Nikolova was arrested.
The reason the fraud was detected, said Mr Reid, was because investigators were able to spot repeating patterns in the applications. “You'd have multiple claims going through one address, which is just not logical for a benefit claim; multiple claims all using one mobile phone number for communications.”
Gyunesh Ali posing with a case of money
The group were released under investigation. Days later, Ali, the suspected leader, fled to Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city. An initial sense of annoyance among the investigators gave way to a determination to bring him back.
An extradition request was initially rejected by the Bulgarian courts, but a higher court overturned that decision and in February 2023, Ali was returned to the UK.
Another gang member, Tsvetka Todorova, also tried to flee but was arrested at Stansted Airport. Nikolova also appears to have had plans to leave; she was arrested for trying to get a new Bulgarian passport on a false basis, claiming she had lost her original one.
Having initially pleaded not guilty at various hearings over a 13-month period, from March 2023, the three women as well as Ali and another man, Stoyan Stoyanov, admitted benefit fraud.
Patritsia Paneva, 27, was sentenced to three years and two months, with the judge taking into account that she had been 19 when she was first recruited by Nikolova and had been initially paid £80 a day by the gang.
Analysts working on the scam calculated that the gang had claimed for about £100m in Universal Credit payments over the nearly five years they were operating.
An Inspector Calls
The UK's biggest ever benefit scam was exposed by a lone detective in a quiet Balkan city after he saw the fraudsters 'living like barons'.
Inspector Vassil Panayotov,
a detective from the city of Sliven in Bulgaria,
first became suspicious after he noticed locals sporting designer clothing and a huge increase in the number of properties being built.
He launched his own investigation into the apparent influx of cash into the town, and soon discovered that thousands of residents were receiving up to £2,500 a month in benefits from the UK despite never stepping foot in the country.
Mr Panayotov alerted the British authorities... He added: "I received information from contacts that hundreds of people were receiving social benefits from the United Kingdom using the weaknesses in the British social system."
There have also been cases of gangs trafficking young women from villages around the city and forcing them to work as prostitutes in other popular European countries.
Mr Panayotov told The Telegraph that he noticed the small town was being 'transformed' by a sudden influx of cash, with many of the buildings being turned into huge 'mansions'.
He said: "I first became suspicious when I started to see the influx of money into Sliven. I wondered how these people had got such money." When I received that information I started to check myself and began my own investigation. I eventually concluded that we were talking about maybe £200 million every year from the UK."
This is the moment police arrived at the house of Galina Nikolova and Stoyan Stoyanov before arresting the couple in 2021.
Mr Panayotov claimed the gang had at least 6,000 customers who each paid a one-off commission of between £500 and £800. They would then receive on average between £2,000 and £2,500 a month for two months, he added. After this point, the gang would take the cash for themselves, and over time they became so rich they started 'living like barons,' Mr Panayotov said.
He added: "The money coming into Sliven transformed the area. It did so in terms of property, but also people were buying designer clothes, and opening shops, casinos. I gave the information to the British police and they launched their own investigation into the gang."
Since the arrests, Mr Panayotov says that many people in the town 'hate' him. The British embassy in Bulgaria, on the other hand, invited the detective to celebrate at the late Queen’s Birthday party to say thank you for his hard work. The officer said that the majority of the customers, and commissioners, were from the Roma minority community.
'Images are exchanged on the Deluxe WhatsApp Group that poke fun at the naivety of the DWP in relation to the fraudulent claims,' Mr Little said.
Sentencing the gang, Judge David Aaronberg KC said that the fraudsters had been able to operate for so long because of 'woefully inadequate checking systems' at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which failed to identify 'repeated use of the same names, addresses and telephone numbers'.
The court heard that one phone number had been used for around 600 false claims and around 40 shell companies, set up to provide false payslips, were all registered to one address.
There were a similar number of properties that were “recycled and repeatedly used” for thousands of different claims, the court heard.
Tom Little KC,
prosecuting, said there were currently ongoing investigations in the UK into multiple other people suspected of involvement.
The Telegraph understands that while further confiscation hearings are set to take place over the summer, currently just under £1 million has been recovered.
Sentences
Gyunesh Magbule Ali, 24: Seven years and three months
1x Conspiracy to make false representations
1x Possession of articles for use in fraud
1x Possessing criminal property
Galina Dimitrova Nikolova, 39: Eight years
2x Conspiracy to make false representations
1x Possessing criminal property
1x Possession of articles to use in fraud
Patritsia Pancheva Paneva, 27: Three years and two months
1x Entering into a money laundering arrangement
1x Possession of articles for use in fraud
Paneva also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to make false representations on 12 June 2023.
Stoyan Georgiev Stoyanov, 28: Four years
1x Conspiracy to make false representations
3x Possession of articles for use in fraud
Tsvetka Manolova Todorova, 53: Three years: Todorova will be released on licence immediately because of the time she has already spent under house arrest and in custody. She is liable to be deported back to Bulgaria.
1x Conspiracy to make false representations
1x Possession of articles for use in fraud
... [T]he maximum sentence the judge could have given was 10 years.
Judge David Jeffrey Aaronberg warned them they were all liable to be deported after serving their sentences.
An order for a surcharge is set to be made at a future confiscation hearing.
Violence/Genocide: Do not condone violence or genocide on a person or group of people. You are free to attack a person or groups ideas but you are crossing the line when calling for violence. This will be heavily enforced in threads with breaking news involving victims.
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