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The integrity of the British welfare system has come under intense scrutiny following the sentencing of a high-ranking civil servant who weaponized his insider knowledge to orchestrate a sophisticated identity theft ring. Rafiq Master, a 50-year-old British-Pakistani man and former Executive Officer for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has been handed a 32-month prison sentence at Preston Crown Court. Master, a well-known figure within certain circles of the Blackburn community, utilized his decade of experience within the civil service to siphon approximately £50,000 from public funds, leaving a trail of hijacked identities and systemic vulnerabilities in his wake.
The prosecution detailed a calculated operation that spanned from April 2019 to October 2020. While Master had maintained a previously unblemished ten-year career with the DWP, he ultimately leveraged his position of trust to submit 51 fraudulent Universal Credit applications. The scheme was particularly opportunistic, as Master capitalized on the temporary suspension of face-to-face identity verifications at Jobcentres—a measure introduced by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19. By bypassing these safeguards, Master submitted claims under 41 different names, successfully triggering 31 payouts before the department’s internal investigators flagged the irregularities in 2021.
The mechanics of the fraud were clinical and high-speed. Master would apply for "advance payments"—designed to help the most vulnerable citizens during the waiting period for benefits—and then immediately close the claims once the cash hit one of four designated bank accounts. One of those accounts belonged to his co-defendant, 69-year-old Khalid Yusuf, also of Blackburn, who acted as a money launderer for the stolen funds. The impact on the public was not merely financial; many innocent individuals found their personal data compromised, only discovering the theft when they received aggressive DWP demands to repay thousands of pounds they had never actually touched.
During the proceedings, the defense highlighted Master’s background as a family man who had been active in community work, suggesting that financial pressures related to funding his children’s higher education and mounting loan repayments drove him to crime. Judge Robert Altham, the Honorary Recorder of Preston, acknowledged that Master came from an otherwise law-abiding and decent family but remained unmoved by the plea for leniency. The Judge noted the "unattractive" nature of the crimes, pointing out that Master was actively profiting from a national crisis while the rest of the country suffered under the weight of the pandemic.
While Khalid Yusuf received a 12-month community order and a £500 fine for his secondary role in the enterprise, the court determined that Master’s breach of trust required immediate incarceration. The 32-month sentence serves as a stark warning to those within the civil service who might consider exploiting the very systems they are paid to protect. Master, who was dismissed from his post following the 2021 investigation, now faces the total collapse of his professional standing and a future defined by his role in one of the most brazen internal frauds in the DWP’s recent history.
