Benefits fraudster who faked kids’s identities ordered to pay £2m
- Ali Bana Mohamed, 42, will face a nine-year sentence if he fails to return the money
A advantages cheat who faked the identities of virtually 200 kids to pocket public cash has been ordered to repay greater than £2million.
Ali Bana Mohamed, 42, has three months to return the money or face a nine-year jail sentence, the Department for Work and Pensions stated.
Mohamed, from Hulme in Manchester, was jailed in 2022 for masterminding a decade-long rip-off to cheat taxpayers out of at the least £1.7million.
He enlisted family and mates to help him in submitting bogus claims beneath about 70 totally different names, utilizing stolen identities of adults together with the pretend beginning certificates of 188 kids.
All the fraudulent claims have been made on the idea that the grownup had care of named kids and was entitled to little one profit and tax credit.
Ali Bana Mohamed, 42, was jailed in 2022 for masterminding a decade-long rip-off to cheat taxpayers out of at the least £1.7million
He has three months to return the money or face a nine-year jail sentence, the Department for Work and Pensions (pictured) stated
The rip-off was rumbled when HMRC seen that calls from the identical two phone numbers have been repeatedly utilized in reference to seemingly unrelated claims.
The DWP launched a probe, Operation Paratrooper, and investigators found that Mohamed and 6 others have been behind the fraud.
They additionally discovered hyperlinks to 4 properties in Manchester together with a fast-food store and cafe, in addition to £500,000 in illicit financial institution transfers and withdrawals.
Mohamed admitted 29 fraud offences and was sentenced to 3 and a half years in jail in 2022.
It would have been longer had he not already been serving 16 years for medication and immigration offences.
In 2022, six of the fraudsters who had helped him acquired jail sentences totalling greater than 13 years. One had his time period suspended.
Judge Brian Cummings praised DWP officers for ‘their skill and determination in their investigation’.
The division’s severe and organised crime part established that Mohamed had submitted little one profit and tax credit score claims beneath about 70 totally different grownup names over a nine-year interval between April 2007 and July 2016.
All the fraudulent claims have been made on the idea that the grownup had care of named kids and was entitled to little one profit and tax credit (Stock picture)
Kevin Slack, prosecuting, stated Mohamed saved handwritten notebooks detailing the data and hid these in his wardrobe.
This month, on December 22, Liverpool Crown Court ordered him to repay £2,164,828.30 at a confiscation listening to.
The Proceeds of Crime Act permits courts to calculate the quantity people have benefited from their offending and problem a confiscation order based mostly on belongings.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride stated: ‘Our welfare system is predicated on fairness, and we will make sure that those who need our help receive it and those who wish to exploit the system face justice.
‘So as benefit fraud becomes more sophisticated, so must we. This latest case is testament to the tenacity of our expert anti-fraud squad who saved the hard-working taxpayer £1.1billion last year.’
The DWP has introduced a crackdown on fraud which is estimated to value taxpayers £8billion a yr.
It has pledged £900million over three years to sort out the problem, whereas a brand new Data Protection and Digital Information Bill will permit officers to examine the accounts of anybody receiving advantages.
