The several defendants conspired with themselves and others to submit false claims to the Department of Work and Pensions under the Universal Credit scheme which is intended to be targeted towards those most in need.

Claims were made on behalf of real people - nearly always Bulgarian Nationals and other claims were made in respect of people whose existence cannot be established and still others the identities of real persons may have been hijacked. Many of those for whom claims were processed were living in Bulgaria but the defendants created false documents and told lies in order to progress the claims which were being made. The documents included fictitious tenancy agreements and letters from landlords, claiming untruthfully that a claimant lived at a particular address, and bogus letters
from employers and counterfeit payslips, indicating falsely that a claimant worked for a particular business and earned a modest salary. Letters from GPs and schools were fabricated, indicating untruthfully that individuals were registered at GP practices and, in some cases, that children – who either did not exist or who were living in Bulgaria – were living and being educated in the UK.

The fraudulent activity began in 2016 and continued until 2021. That it
was able to continue for so long undetected is indicative of a woefully
inadequate checking system which was then in use at the DWP, which
failed to identify repeated use of the same names, addresses and
telephone numbers.

Prosecution was not, for the most part, conducted under the general law relating to fraud. Instead, specific offences relating to benefits fraud were charged and therefore the basis of sentencing. Those offences have a much lower maximum sentence.

Where money laundering was charged, sentencing requirements limit the powers of the judge by relating sentencing on money laundering convictions to those of the primary offences. And one defendant will recieve favourable treatment on release because she has borne a child in the UK during the commission of offences.

The complexity and extent of the fraud is startling. The Judge clearly wanted much longer jail terms but was hidebound. He has some comfort in that most of the defendants that are in the UK will be deported. But that is small comfort as the parts of the operation in the UK were literally the thin end of a wedge.