Catch up TV

Series 6: Episode 4

The story of Britain’s biggest ever benefit fraud and how the fraudsters were brought to justice. It all started when staff at the Department for Work and Pensions noticed some identical personal information across multiple claim forms. The same phone numbers, addresses and bank account details were being used on forms submitted by lots of different people. Alarm bells started ringing. When they began investigating, they uncovered something that went way beyond a few forms. Evidence was found of a highly organised operation targeting the UK benefits system and designed to get as much money as possible. Investigators described what they found as ‘a benefits factory’ – where fake documents were being created almost as if they were coming off a production line, with the specific aim of accessing benefits. DWP officers discovered that a Bulgarian crime gang was behind the operation. In total, they submitted 6,000 false claims for universal credit, fraudulently pocketing millions of pounds of public money. \n\nA second case follows the Trading Standards team in Swansea as they fight back against illegal vapes flooding the local area. Undercover officers visit dozens of shops in Swansea to buy vapes – and one shop in particular catches their attention. Over the course of many months, they carry out a series of raids on the shop and each time seize a huge quantity of illegal vapes. The shop owner is arrested and released on bail but carries on selling illegal vapes. It takes painstaking work to go through the evidence, but investigators eventually get enough to charge the shopkeeper and put him behind bars.

Source: BBC 1