£1.6m Housing Benefit scammers get sent to Prison

A couple and their accomplice who flew migrants into Britain to claim £1.6million in benefits received sentences of three to five-and-a-half years on 8 April at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Chowdhury Muyeed, 51, Asma Khanom, 47, from Ilford, Essex, and accomplice Habibur Rahman, 36, from Mile End set up companies to pay bogus wages to Italian passport-holders.

The Italian nationals were supplied with fake employment documents including three companies based in Mile End, after flying into the UK through Stansted to attend Job Centre interviews.

This entitled the Italian migrants to claim housing benefit and tax credits in the UK.

The council has worked with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Redbridge Council to secure the conviction of three fraudsters who organised a £1.6 million benefit scam.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, said: “I am pleased that the council’s work has contributed to this conviction. We are committed to working with all our partners to protect the public purse and stamp out all types of fraud.”

A DWP spokesman said: “Fraud and error in the benefit system is at its lowest level ever and our investigators work tirelessly alongside local councils and the police to bring these sorts of criminals to justice.”

More than £600,000 was claimed in Tower Hamlets, £578,000 was claimed in Redbridge, and the DWP paid more than £420,000 in fraudulent claims.

Anyone wanting to report a suspected benefit fraud can contact the council in person, by telephone, fax or email. Or you can complete and submit their online benefit fraud reporting form. All information you give them will be in confidence.

Source: Tower Hamlets Council