The gang faces record prison time over scams conducted on an industrial scale. Britain's biggest ever benefits fraudster cheated the taxpayer out of more than £54 million and spent it on luxury cars, designer clothes, and flashy watches. A gang of five criminals, originally from Bulgaria, made more than 6000 false claims for public cash from their benefit fraud factories in North London. Galin Nikolova is one of five fraudsters in a Bulgarian gang who lived a life of luxury on Universal Credit. Stoyan Stoyanov was also part of the group. The gang spent Universal Credit Britain's biggest ever benefits fraudster revealed as a Bulgarian gang who swiped £54 millions to spend on luxury blingon luxury cars after cheating the system. Police found cash hidden in a suitcase under a bed when they raided properties. Gyunesh Ali, Patritsia Paneva, Stoyan Stoyanov, Tsvetva Todorova, and Galina Nikolov lived a life of luxury on £53,901,959.82 Universal Credit which they stole through their sophisticated scheme. Over a four and half year period, the group operated on an industrial scale out of the back of three corner shops in Wood Green with a library of fake identities used to make fraudulent claims. Each claim was allocated a different mobile number and had an array of fake documents including tenancy agreements, counterfeit payslips, and forged letters from GPs. Landlords, and employees. If a claim was rejected they would try again until it was accepted. Some of the claims were made using real people's details who would pay the gang to use their identifies to make the claims on their behalf. The Universal Credit was paid into hundreds of different bank accounts and then withdrawn by the crooks at the bank. Work is ongoing to recover the vast sums of money with some thought to have been spent on property in Bulgaria. The UK'S biggest ever investigation into benefits fraud was launched when a pattern emerged in the claims with names and addresses repeated. While conducting raids on homes, police discovered money concealed in a bag beneath a bed. Through their clever method, Gyunesh Ali, Patritsia Paneva, Stoyan Stoyanov, Tsvetva Todorova, and Galina Nikolov stole £53,901,959.82 in Universal Credit to live a luxurious lifestyle. The group ran an industrial-scale operation over a period of four and a half years, using a library of fictitious names to make fraudulent claims out of the back of three Wood Green corner stores. Every claim had a unique mobile number and contained a variety of false documents, such as forged letters from GPs, landlords, and employers, as well as phoney payslips and lease agreements. They would retry if a claim was denied until it was approved.

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A portion of the claims were submitted using the personal information of actual persons who paid the gang to use their identities to submit the claims on their behalf. The bank thieves took the Universal Credit out of hundreds of different bank accounts once it was paid into them. The enormous sums of money that are believed to have been spent on real estate in Bulgaria are still being recovered. When a pattern of names and addresses appearing repeatedly in claims surfaced, the UK's largest-ever investigation into benefits fraud was started. Source: The Sun