Three Jobcentre civil servants, who were the ringleaders of a £1.7m plot involving at least 1,767 bogus claims for maternity benefit, tax credit and jobseekers allowance, were jailed for a total of twenty-three years today.
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) heard.
They are: Anthony Ekajeh, 48, of Pinewood Avenue, Rainham, who received 10 years; Fiayo Akinwumiju, 35, of Brighton Road, Coulsdon, who received 7-and-a-half years and Olufemi Kehinde, 47, of Bollo Bridge Road, Acton, who received 5-and-a-half years.
"These were frauds committed against the state using individuals personal information for their own gain," said Judge Heather Boucher. "It was public money for the most vulnerable in society and this conspiracy shows a massive amount of planning."
Three co-conspirators, who were not employed by the Jobcentre, and have jumped bail each received five years.
They 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.
A seventh defendant, Akinmayowe Aiyeola, 46, of Primrose Lane, Croydon received 6-and-a-half years and eighth, Kelvin Akhigbe, 37, of Chapel Close, Grays received 12 months.
Neither of them were Jobcentre employees.
"This hijacking of identities is something that concerns society as a whole," said Judge Baucher. "These conspiracies were on a large scale, sophisticated an cleverly done."
All eight defendants are Nigerian, who have been either granted full British citizen ship or the right to permanently reside in the UK and have fathered at least 18 children between them.
Prosecutor Mr. Andrew Evans told the court: "It was carried out by submitting a large amount 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.
If the conspiracy achieved 100% success it would have made £1,722,562 - in reality over £270,000 was obtained and a Proceeds of Crime Act investigation will follow.
The civil servants 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.
"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."
All the defendants, except Akhigbe, were convicted of conspiring between January 1, 2009 and October 2, 2010 to defraud the DWP out of £820,000.
Ekajeh, Fiayo Akinwumiju and Aiyeola alone were convicted of conspiring between November, 2005 and July, 2010 to defraud HMRC out of £898,000.
Ekajeh and Aiyeola alone were convicted of conspiring to defraud the DWP out of £4,515.
Akhigbe admitted five counts of fraud by false representation in relation to four SSMG claims and a community care claim.
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