Khalid Farid, 59, admitted to fraudulently claiming tax credits, when HMRC launched an investigation, even though he earned £509,000 from property sales alone.

A HMRC property taskforce, which has been set up to catch individuals that avoid paying tax on property transactions, discovered the fraud.

It was found that Farid had eight London properties, under his wife’s name, that he had sold over the course of nine years. At the same time, he was claiming tax credits for himself and his family.

Farid claimed that the only property he had was his rented flat which he used to cook and deliver Indian takeaways.

David Margree, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC said: ‘Farid deliberately abused a system designed to provide financial help to the most vulnerable people in our society. Honest taxpayers and those in need of benefits often don’t have the opportunity to own one property, but Farid profited from the sale of eight.

‘He knew what he was doing was wrong but had no intention of playing by the rules, thinking he could hide his crime by using his wife’s name as a smokescreen. But he was wrong and now is paying the price for his dishonesty with a jail sentence.’

The property sales will undergo Capital Gains Assessment and confiscation proceedings to recover the proceeds of the crime will begin.