Nelli Kellaway is all over the papers this morning because her case is so colourful. She swindled nearly £60,000 in benefits and spent the money on going to Russia to have breast enlargements. She took her daughter for the same operation and also lavished cash on other plastic surgery and cosmetic dentistry. But she was a thief.
Her husband, Steven, also went to Russia but died during the trip. She was arrested on the day that she flew back to the UK with his ashes.
But the case is more serious and shows just how people can milk the benefits system. Searches by police revealed the couple had a string of properties which they rented out, earning £100,000 a year, but still claimed housing benefit. They also had close to £200,000 in undeclared cash accounts.
Kellaway has pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.
Their latest fraud came to light after her husband submitted a claim for housing and council tax benefit in March 2008. He declared that he was a single parent on Income Support but was actually living with his wife.
He also failed to state that she had more than £80,000 in undeclared bank accounts, owned property in Camden and had a rental income of more than £2,000 per month. And Mr Kellaway did not the tell the council that, as of June 2008, he had £119,000 in a Nationwide Flex Account.
Council officials and the police are now seeking to seize these assets.
Just seven months later, the council received another claim for housing and council tax from the same address from a woman who said Mr Kellaway was her landlord!
And when the property was checked, two more tenants said the Kellaways were their landlords, renting the rooms to them for cash deposits of £600 and a weekly cash rental of £240.
The address was later searched by council staff who discovered evidence of the undeclared bank accounts.
They also found Mrs Kellaway's diary, which stated that she and her 24-year-old daughter had travelled to Russia for the surgery.
A search of her computer revealed forged documents and other papers which were used for another false claim for housing benefit at an address in Richmond, South-West London. The documents also identified income from other rented properties across London.
One of the spreadsheets detailed an income of £98,000 a year through false claims to the benefit system.
Background checks on the couple found that Steven Kellaway had been convicted of benefit fraud in November 2007. But they still had plenty of assets. And if there was any caution marker against him, it was ineffective. And data matching hadn't exposed them. Benefits administrators have questions to answer.
His widow will be required to pay back £57,000 and all other assets deemed to be the proceeds of crime, which will be a very tidy sum.
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