A fraudster from Manchester cheated the child benefit and tax credit system out of more than £1.7 million pounds ... with claims for 188 FAKE children.
Ali Bana Mohamed used relatives and friends from Birmingham and London to assist in the scam. This involved submitting bogus claims in about 70 different names.
They got away with the brazen scheme until suspicions were aroused by the HMRC. The tax office spotted that the same two telephone numbers were repeatedly calling the tax credits claims call centre in connection with seemingly unrelated claims and a dedicated DWP investigation was launched.
