Gang jailed over £50m benefit fraud

Galina Nikolova was said to be the ringleader and Gyunesh Ali her former business partner

The perpetrators of the largest case of benefit fraud in England and Wales have been jailed for between three and eight years.

The gang admitted to stealing more than £50m between them.

The three women and two men - all Bulgarian - made thousands of false claims for Universal Credit between 2016 and 2021.

They also admitted money laundering.

Tsvetka Todorova, Stoyan Stoyanov and Patritsia Paneva all pleaded guilty to fraud and money-laundering offences

Sentences:

Galina Nikolova: Eight years

Judge David Aaronberg KC found Nikolova, 39, was the ringleader and responsible for £25m in losses to the taxpayer.

Gyunesh Ali: Seven years and three months

The judge said that Ali, 34, had committed fraud by false representation “on an industrial scale” during the scheme.

He said: “You played a leading role in a scheme that was complex and sophisticated in nature. Your offending lasted for some four and a half years and you were involved in a vast number of false declarations.”

The judge added there was evidence of him “engaging in a lavish lifestyle” and there was a video showing him showering money in the air.

Stoyan Stoyanov, 28: Four years

Tsvetka 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.

Patritsia Paneva, 27: Three years and two months

The judge took into account that Paneva had been 19 when she was first recruited by Nikolova and had been initially paid £80 a day by the gang.

The fake benefit claims were supported by an array of forged documents, including fictitious tenancy agreements, counterfeit payslips and mocked-up letters from landlords, employers and GPs.

If the claims were rejected, the fraudsters would try again and again until the applications were granted, the CPS said.

The investigation identified three "benefit factories" in the Wood Green area of north London where repeated claims originated.

The businesses claimed to assist people with obtaining a National Insurance number and benefits to which they were entitled.

'Difficult to unravel'

When the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) raided the properties belonging to the gang, they found bundles of cash stuffed in shopping bags and suitcases, a luxury car and designer goods including watches, jackets and glasses.

The court heard that messages and images were exchanged on a WhatsApp group at the height of the fraud showing the gang mocking the “naivety of the DWP”.

Under current laws, the maximum sentence the judge could have given was 10 years.

The defendants were given credit for their guilty pleas, time served and some other mitigating factors.

Investigators believe the gang would lower phones, when they rang, in a bucket so accomplices below could pose as claimants

Judge Aaronberg warned them they were all liable to be deported after serving their sentences and added that “an enormous amount of work” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had to be carried out in order to prosecute the gang.

He added: “This is believed to be cumulatively the largest case ever prosecuted for benefit fraud on the DWP.

"It was a difficult case to unravel and prosecute in a coherent fashion to the court.”

An order for a surcharge is set to be made at a future confiscation hearing.

Gyunesh Ali posing with a case of money