Bulgarian UC benefit scammers took at least £50m, possibly £250m per annum, via complex fraud.

[Papyrophile]

There's a trial happening in north London right now, with five Bulgarians in the dock for organising the largest benefit fraud operation ever in the UK. It was detected by the Bulgarian police. Where were the UK authorities during this? Asleep?

A link to the Telegraph, but paywalled, so good luck accessing it. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/28/bulgarian-town-boomed-from-uks-biggest-benefits-fraud/

Well our own chancellor "carelessly" underpaid £3m in tax. Plenty is possible.

And mine, so much corruption

totally agree.

It wasn't worth it, they got caught and will now have to go to prison.
They will try and claim some money back from them too.

It's rarely worth it you always get caught in the end.
Just to go on holiday buy some watches and trainers not worth it.
If you want the highlife, then earn it yourself and sleep easy at night or be lucky enough to win it.
Stupid greedy people.

Not worth it? 50 million for 3 to 8 years in prison, which they'll probably only serve half of, less time already spent on parole? I'd say it's worth it. That money is all over Bulgaria now. The UK will never recover much of it. They'll see out their days in luxury once out of prison.

Is there any way of extracting the stolen money out of Bulgaria

Are they able to freeze bank accounts there or ask for co operation from their government

I am completely in favour of mandatory ID cards, with biometric identification. Iris scans, fingerprints, you choose, and with an NHS number so that it can be requested at every official interface and scanned quickly. I know others object vehemently to the idea. But every other European country requires them, they substitute for passports, and they should be the main default recourse to proving who you are and your status/entitlement to benefits or NHS care. Like it or not, the absence of such a card in the UK leaves us open, and makes the UK a destination, along with the fact that almost everyone who goes to school anywhere in the world has a smattering of English.

Sorry I tried to remove the strike through and failed. It's still legible though.

This is not ordinary individuals it is an organised crime group which is the main cause of benefit fraud. Let’s not use this as a benefit bashing or immigrant bashing thread.

Agreed @Blackcats7. It was criminal activity. I don't think I have read any benefit or immigrant bashing at all here. I'm still agog at the epic brazen scale of the fraud, and rather concerned that there are similar scams running in other areas. Frankly, it doesn't fill me with confidence that the authorities supposedly in charge are capable of preventing the UK tax payers being ripped off and legged over.

I have a lawyer friend who works in the dwp investigating cases of fraud. She says even when they discover fraud they hardly ever prosecute or recover the money. Too much red tape to get through apparently🤷🏻‍♀️

Public systems in the UK have so many holes that crooks exploit easily... no ID cards, different government systems are not integrated, no official way to register residence / address...

JSA still exists for people who are claiming based on their NI contributions and yes, if you don't turn up, you don't get paid. Income based claims are now UC.

@GoneFishingToday · Today 20:29

When I think of how I had to fight to get the benefits I need to live on, even though I was still making NI contributions, and am severely disabled, this makes me want to print off the article and go and personally shove it up Rishi Sunak's nose! How dare they consider sanctioning us, because we can't actually get into a government building for an assessment, because it's so badly designed, whilst paying literally millions of £ to people who don't even live here, and have never contributed to our country in their lives? Makes my blood boil!😡😡😡

YES! 👏 Saved me typing this.

Absolutely fucking scandalous! 10s of millions being scammed left right and centre because of massive holes in the system, and yet the Government fuss over given people £95 a week for disability benefits that the vast majority of people claiming DO deserve!

So many IT systems within government departments are hopelessly outdated,
Any decent system would have flagged up multiple claims in the same name if it was a centralised system.

I bet. Yet the poor family members on carers allowance who unintentionally earn 20p over what their allowance and they’ve got to pay thousands back. It really is sickening

YEP! This! ^

Except it was FRAUD so clearly not entitled.

The issue is why we have insufficient investigation of crime like this.

It’s mind blowing how they got away with it for so long. It’s the injustice of it all. You have to jump through hoops to get help for DLA for your disabled child and then you read this.

How can they want to know the far end of a fart and how many eye lashes DC has, how many shights a day they have and the bludy forms about 40 pages long -evidence needed etc…..yet folk can make people up and claim millions upon millions 🤯

This is why people voted for Brexit. Having open borders just made it too easy for fraudsters.

How’s Brexit working for you?

I still do not understand how can be this much money.

Peanuts when compared to billions, or even trillions, Britain looted from virtually every corner of the world.

This is why I get absolute rage at our benefits system. There is no logic in it.

£50 million? That's almost half a Baroness Mone. What sentence did she get?