Thirteen people were arrested on Tuesday (May 19) as part of Rebridge council’s biggest ever investigation into organised benefit fraud.
More than 100 Italian nationals living in the Redbridge borough are declaring false employment details in order to claim housing benefit, the council’s investigation team has stated. 13 arrests were made on Tuesday evening in a suspected £1.1m organised benefit fraud scam in Redbridge in the biggest investigation of benefit fraud in the borough’s history.
Nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA) are required to be in some legitimate work with limited earnings to claim housing benefit, but the council insist that many of the employers listed may be false or trading illegally.
However, alarm bells started ringing when assessment officers realised several Italians all claiming to be earning a similar amount of £156 per week.
The council are now chasing the recovery of about £1, 124,000 in overpaid benefits and expects thousands of pounds to be save each week as a result of the arrests. Cops notified the councill about a large number of Italian citizens arriving at Stansted Airport with appointment letters for interviews for National Insurance numbers. However, once the Italians caught wind of the investigation, several of them absconded to Italy the same day to escape any possibility of prosecution.Abuse of our Welfare system by indigenes of other countries was a topical aspect of this years elections and has always been an issue for hardworking Brits who do not want to see their taxes go to foreigners who want to scam our country without contributing to our Labour force. Many Italians are lovely people, but the tendency to defraud this country which has long been seen as a soft touch when it comes to the Welfare system is not to be tolerated. The government has pledged to clamp down on welfare provision and encourage work.
A spokesperson for Redbridge Council told eye of media ” we have received reliable information suggesting that a number of people of Italian descent have been abusing our benefit system. Arrests to this effects have been made and we will be pursuing every line of inquiry to recover as much as possible and bring those responsible to justice. Our benefits system is for those who need it most, not for those who wish to exploit the hard work of the British people for their own personal and selfish gains”
