Three Jobcentre civil servants were involved in a £1.7m plot involving at least 1,767 bogus claims for maternity benefit, tax credit and jobseekers allowance, a court heard yesterday.
They abused their authorised access to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) database too research claimants all over the country and make multiple fraudulent claims on their behalf, Croydon Crown Court (pictured) was told.
They are: Anthony Ekajeh, 48, of Pinewood Avenue, Rainham; Fiayo Akinwumiju, 35, of The Sycamore, Brighton Road, Coulsdon and Olufemi Kehinde, 47, of Bollo Bridge Road, Acton.
Accused of assisting them are: Folahan Akinwumiju, 34, of Narev Court, Cedar Avenue, Enfield; Charles Okedare, 40, of Barass Close, Enfield and Wale Akande, 45, of Lovett Way, Willesden.
"All six defendants are alleged to have been involved in a sophisticated and organised fraud targeted against the benefit system," said prosecutor Mr. Andrew Evans.
"It was carried out by submitting a large of false benefit claim forms and the claimants had no idea these claims had been made and did not complete or sign the forms.
"Their identities had been hijacked.
"A large number of claims were made for Sure Start Maternity Grants (SSMG) a one-off five hundred pound payment to help persons on benefits or low income to buy clothes or equipment for their new baby," added Mr. Evans.
A total of 1,562 bogus SSMG claims were made, plus 205 false claims to HMRC for tax credits and a lesser amount of jobseeker claims, totalling £4,515.
The civil servants in the dock were all at executive officer grade and Ekajeh worked at Dagenham Jobcentre; Akinwumiju at Crawley and Kehinde at Fulham.
The vast majority of the false claims were paid into Post Office Card Accounts (POCA). "They had also been opened in hijacked identities," said Mr. Evans.
"The three absent defendants can be linked to SSMG's that were falsified or to the POCA's to which the benefit payments are made.
"Accounts were opened in their names or the names of their family or in one case a company under their control."
Ekajeh was suspended in March 2010 after ten years in the civil service, where he also had a deputy management role and responsibility for the stock room, which contained blank claim forms.
"He was seen coming out of the stock room wearing an outdoor coat and carrying a plastic pouch that seemed quite full.
"From July 2009 he carried out a large number of unauthorised searches outside the area of the Dagenham Jobcentre and in his last month searched 105 other offices around the country in relation to 1600 clients.
"He played a key and principal role in these three frauds.
"He was also involved in yet another fraud, diverting payments of genuine jobseeker claims," added Mr. Evans. "He altered the bank details into which the payments should have been made."
Fiayo Akinwumiju was suspended in August, 2009. "In two weeks he accessed forty-three customers he had no legitimate reason to access.
"Shortly after false SSMG claims were made in their identities. In one hour he looked up twenty-four different benefit customers and thirty-six claims were made in the names of those customers.
"In a six-month period fifty-two customers were accessed and false tax credit claims were made in their names."
Kehinde was suspended on October 1, 2010. "On three dates he used the search facility to identify and access benefit customers all over the country and false SSMG claims were made in their identities.
"He also made searches in Bedford and yielded fifteen customers and twenty-one claims were made in those names that were false.
"All the searches were carried out after 6pm when the office was closed. He also played a key role in the fraud."
Folahan Akinwumiju claimed income support as a single parent and was arrested when his fingerprints were found on a bogus claim form and his home searched by police.
"They found a vast quantity of documents for various bank accounts, with various banks and in various names."
Three POCA cards were seized. "They were the end user accounts into which the fraudulent SSMG claims were paid."
Okedare was arrested in August, 2010. "Twenty POCA cards were found in his car and eighteen of them either received or requested fraudulent payments."
The jury were told Okedare was also captured on CCTV at a Post Office in nearby Bush Hill Park using POCA cards in the fraud to withdraw cash.
His handwriting was also identified on fraudulent claims and he had a National Insurance number on his phone involved in a bogus claim.
Akande was arrested in September, 2010. "His fingerprint was identified on two SSMG claim forms and he can also be linked via the accounts."
The six defendants, all of Nigerian origin, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring between January 1, 2009 and October 2, 2010 to defraud the DWP out of £820,000.
Ekajeh and Fiayo Akinwumiju alone deny conspiring between November, 2005 and July, 2010 to defraud HMRC out of £898,000.
Ekajeh alone denies conspiring to defraud the DWP out of £4,515.
A seventh defendant, Akinmayowe Aiyeola, 46, of Primrose Lane, Croydon has already pleaded guilty to all three counts.
The trial is expected to last two months.
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