A Romford couple who fraudulently obtained nearly £150,000 in tax credits for ten fictitious children and claimed care costs for a child minder who lived more than 100 miles away and didn’t know them have received jail sentences for a total of 26 months.
Abiodun and Olanrewaju Olaleye’s scam was stopped after HMRC noticed discrepancies in their tax credit claims, says the paper with a straight face. Yes, they were onto it straight away, weren't they.
The couple, from Harold Wood, both made fraudulent applications as single parents which in total included 13 children; whereas in reality they had three.
In addition they did not include their full income and the childcare claim was for a non registered child carer in Lincolnshire.
Investigators also discovered that Abiodun Olaleye had made an additional claim using an alias in the name of Lateef Aremu.
Abiodun Olaleye was jailed for 20 months and his wife received a six month sentence suspended for 18 month with 250 hours of unpaid work.
Revenue officer Bob Gaiger said: “The vast majority of tax credit claimants are honest and claim only what they are entitled to, but this couple thought they could play the system. And for years they were right, Bob. They claimed for 13 children when in fact they only have three and costs for childcare with a childminder in Spalding Lincolnshire who had never even heard of them.
“Those who are tempted to commit this type of crime should think again as we will not hesitate to pursue them and bring them before the courts.”
Actually, the crime could hardly have been more obvious but it still took HMRC years to identify it. How many millions are spilling out of the centralised tax credit systems into fraudsters' pockets?
Oh and can we have our money back, please? Hm, thought not.
0 comments:
Post a Comment