Five benefits crooks , who have now been jailed, lived the high life before their shameless crimes were finally exposed. Gyunesh Ali, Patritsia Paneva, Stoyan Stoyanov, Tsvetva Todorova, and Galina Nikolova, originally from Bulgaria, stole £53,901,959.82 worth of Universal Credit through their sly scheme - using the loot to fund their extravagant lifestyles.
Judge David Aaronberg KC said that Ali had committed fraud by false representation "on an industrial scale" during the scheme also involving the other four defendants. The crooks operated from three 'benefits factories' in North London, including the seemingly ordinary Bulgarian grocery store Antonia Food in Wood Green, which has since been replaced by a Turkish food shop. Over the course of four-and-a-half years, the gang made more than 6,000 false benefits claims using a variety of fake identities - all created using fraudulent documents and forged letters.
The enormous sums of money were then paid into hundreds of different bank accounts, withdrawn and splashed on property, designer clothes, and dream holidays. Despite showing off their wealth and luxury purchases on social media, the benefits fraudsters were able to get away with their brazen scheme for nearly five years. 'UK's biggest benefit fraudsters' who stole £54m with fake claims jailed Ali showered the floor of an apartment with banknotes in a showy display of wealth ( Image: CPS) The group managed to evade capture for nearly five years ( Image: CPS) Sickeni.