A housing benefit fraudster, who created thirteen separate identities during a five-year £90,000 scam, was jailed for two years today.
Jobless Emmanuel Ikem, 27, of Godstone Road, Kenley, Croydon forged birth certificates, tenancy agreements, utility bills and other documents.
He also had a sideline in insurance fraud, pocketing another £8,000 in payouts for non-existent injuries, but was exposed when his unsuspecting parents reported all the suspicious correspondence arriving at the family home.
"You dedicated considerable effort and thought into your dishonesty," Croydon Crown Court Judge Jeremy Gold QC told tearful Ikem. "It is a shame that did not go into some lawful activity.
"You chose the opposite and chose dishonesty to support yourself over a long period of time, defrauding the public."
Ikem pleaded guilty to thirteen counts of defrauding Croydon Council out of housing benefit payments between February 20, 2007 and June 30, this year.
He also pleaded guilty to three counts of concealing criminal property between March 1, 2007 and June 30, this year and to one count of converting criminal property between April 16, last year and March 1.
Ikem also asked for three offences of insurance fraud committed on February 11, 2009; April 11, 2011 and March 5, this year to be taken into consideration.
"This case involves a fraud in which the defendant made false claims for housing benefit in thirteen different identities and utilised bank accounts to receive the proceeds of these frauds," said prosecutor Mr. Julius Capon.
"The defendant made multiple applications for housing benefit and provided false documents that required considerable planning and he falsified documents to show that he was at those addresses."
Ikem made claims on properties he controlled, were derelict or occupied by an unsuspecting resident.
"A similar style of documents were used, which is how the defendant was linked to all these crimes," added Mr. Capon.
When arrested in June Ikem denied everything, but the prosecutor described it as: "Fraudulent from the outset, sophisticated, pre-planned and prolonged."
Describing his client as a "church-going young father" Ikem's lawyer Mr. Alistair Polson said: "The impact which the whole investigation and court proceedings have been significant.
"He is one of those people whose life got so intertwined, starting with cannabis and then these frauds, that he found being stopped and arrested as a great benefit to him.
"What has happened to Mr. Ikem has taken a great toll on the family."
Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings will follow.
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