‘Gangs hit UK in child benefits scam’
Aug 20 2008 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail

A TORY MP is calling for an investigation into an organised scam involving the claiming of multiple child benefits in the UK by foreign criminals.

David Davies, the MP for Monmouth, says he was told of the scam by an Eastern European government official he met earlier this month.

To protect the official, Mr Davies does not want to identify the place, or even the country, where he picked up the information.

In a letter to Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, Mr Davies states: “I was recently speaking to an immigration official in an Eastern European country and would like to draw your attention to a widespread benefits scam involving organised gangs from certain Eastern European countries.

“The scam is this. Large families will apply for passports, the parents fly to the UK, set up bank accounts, and claim benefits while the children stay at home. They then fly back to their country of origin, change their names, and do exactly the same thing again. It is my understanding that some families have done this up to four times in the past year alone.

“The scam was mentioned to me by a civil servant who works in the immigration department of a central European country which has recently joined the EU. I am told large gangs are involved and very often the people who make the claims are from the Roma community. There are, I understand, people ‘higher up’ who supervise them. This guise is made possible by the ease with which you can change your name by deed poll, normally for a nominal fee of around £20.â€