The five-person strong gang defrauded the taxpayer out of £53.9m from 2016-21 but the real scale of this is not completely known.

The gang were using the identities of people from Bulgaria to falsely claim universal credit, with some of the claimants being paid £2,000-£2,500 a month. The claimants would then pay a commission to the gang of £500-£800.

Some of the claimants would be flown over by the gang to attend interviews or GP appointments so there was solid evidence of them residing in the UK. Photoshop would also be used by members of the gang to make it look as if claimants were standing in front of houses with open doors, to show they lived there.

Inspector Vassil Panayotov from Sliven in Bulgaria began to suspect something was going on when there was a large influx of money into the town, with people wearing designer clothing and construction booming.

He told The Telegraph it could have been up to £200m a year being sent over to Bulgaria, although analysts predict it to be closer to £100m over the five years.

One claim pack seen by DWP was for £1,941 per month. However, the mobile number attributed to the landlord of the claimant was linked to Patritsia Paneva, one of the defendants. Additionaly, the employer of the claimant was also one of the 40 shell companies the gang used throughoout the fraud. Officers attended this address to find 'post-bag loads of mail addressed to numerous employerssitting unopened in the hallway'.

Galina Nikolova, 39, Stoyan Stoyanov, 28, Tsvetka Todorova, 52, Gyunesh Ali, 34, and Patritsia Paneva, 27 have all been sentenced to jail time with Nikolava receiving what is believed to be the longest sentence for this form of crime.

As well as the sentencing they have all been informed of their automatic deportation once their sentence is fulfilled.

Nikolava, touted as one of the masterminds behind the scheme, wrote a letter to judge David Aaronberg KC in which she claimed to fear others in the gang, using it as an excuse for her actions.

Aaronberg said: ‘I reject entirely your claim to be in fear of others, you played a leading role.’ When police raided her a stash of £750,000 was discovered.

She also attempted to leave the country, applying for a new passport with a false identity, although she was arrested before this could happen.

In total, Nikolava was found to be responsible for the loss of £25m from the taxpayer, she was sentenced to eight years in prison. She was also disqualified from acting as a company director for 12 years.

Her partner in crime, Ali was the other ringleader in the operation for four and a half years while he was ‘demonstrating a lavish lifestyle’ said Aaronberg. He initially tried to blame Nikolave for the crime, but Aaronberg said: ‘You played a leading role in a sophisticated crime,’ and was ‘revelling in the cash you acquired through your dishonesty.’

When arrested in 2021, £41,511 was found in Ali’s property.

Ali fled back to Bulgaria after being arrested in 2021 but was extradited to the UK to face justice in 2023. Ali received a 10-year sentence for the ‘offending of the utmost gravity’ but was reduced by 25% for his guilty plea. Receiving a total of seven years and six months in prison, reduced further to seven years and three months due to the time he had already spent in custody.

He was also disqualified from acting as a company director for 12 years.

Paneva was 19 when she was enlisted into the gang, being paid just £80 a day by Nikolava, rising to £200 a day when it ‘became more profitable’. Although her ‘involvement was fairly limited’ said Aaronberg, he did not accept she was not integral to the operation as a phone linked to her was the contact number for over 500 false claims.

She was sentenced to three years and two months in prison in total.

Stoyanov joined the fraudsters in 2020, just weeks after he arrived in the country from Bulgaria. In a short time, £6.4m of taxpayers' money has been lost through his actions. ‘You did not play a leading role, but you were a trusted subordinate who was aware of the enormity of the conspiracy’ said Aaronberg.

He was sentenced to four years in prison and banned from becoming a company director for seven years.

The fifth fraudster, Todorova, at first tried to claim she did not know any of the people involved in the crime, but evidence was found on her phone finding this to be false. She too attempted to leave the country with her husband but was arrested at Stansted airport before boarding a one-way flight to Bulgaria.

She was initially sentenced to four years and six months by Aaronberg, but due to her ‘good character’ and ‘medical conditions’, this was reduced to three years and nine months. As she had already spent longer than this in custody, she was set to be released but would be automatically deported to Bulgaria.

Aaronberg said: ‘I wish to say a few words about the enormous amount of work which was carried out by DWP employees to bring this case to fruition, work which is still continuing in terms of ongoing investigation into others who, although not named on the indictment in this case, may yet face prosecution.

‘This is believed to be, cumulatively, the largest case ever prosecuted in respect of fraud on the DWP. It was an extremely complex case to unravel and a particularly difficult case to present in a coherent fashion to the court.’

Gang steals £50m in ‘industrial scale’ benefits fraud | 10 April 2024