A Bulgarian gang who carried out the UK’s largest ever benefits fraud – costing the taxpayer £53million – will only have to pay back £2million, it has been revealed.
Galina Nikolova, Tsvetka Todorova, Gyunesh Ali, Patritsia Paneva and Stoyan Stoyanov were jailed for a total of 25 years at Wood Green Crown Court in north London in May 2024.
Now all of them other than Ali have been freed from prison and are on immigration bail awaiting deportation.
The gang were convicted after exploiting the UK’s welfare system to the tune of at least £53million.
They hijacked 6,000 identities to make claims for Universal Credit and even used the names of children living in Bulgaria as part of the five-year scam.
The fraudsters set up three ‘benefit factories’ across London churning out bogus tenancy agreements, counterfeit payslips and forged letters from landlords, employers and GPs to trick the Department for Work and Pensions.
The group was only uncovered after a Bulgarian police officer notified UK officials about a trend of criminals in the city of Sliven who had come into large sums of cash.
Officials are now said to have recouped about £1million but had tried to get more, with a potential reported seize of just £2million.
Prosecutor Gareth Munday told a hearing of attempts by the Crown Prosecution Service and the Department for Work and Pensions to recover the money.
He said: ‘The criminality that backs this offending was substantial, sustained and business-like fraud committed against the DWP.
‘It resulted in a loss to the public purse of many millions of pounds. The Crown has taken every effort to regain as much money as we could.’
Prosecutors wanted to recover about £4million from Nikolova, while saying they could prove she made £2.8million from the scam and had available assets of £942,183.
Prosecutor Mr Munday said the money was gathered across five years, while the ‘difference has been spent’ and there was no realistic prospect Nikolova could pay it back.
Her partner Stoyanov, working as her assistant, made at least £162,950 and was told to pay back £7,654, while Pavena – who made £225,919 and had more than £80,000 in her bank account and £20,000 at her home – was ordered to hand over £99,235.
Mr Munday added that sums being sought were what prosecutors could ‘realistically trace’, as he told of Nikolova admitting she had moved ‘money in cash overseas’.
Judge David Aaronberg ruled that the confiscation amounts were ‘appropriate’ if that was the total able to be recovered from each defendant.
Nikolova was quoted by the Telegraph as saying after the confiscation hearing: ‘I can’t believe it. I get to go home. I am very excited.’
A DWP spokesman said: ‘We take all fraud seriously and last year we saved an estimated £25billion through our prevention and detection activities.
‘In this case, action is ongoing to recover further money.’
Operating from three ‘benefits factories’ across London, the gang had offered a bespoke range of services.
As well as creating multiple false identities to allow them to claim Universal Credit for themselves, they offered fake documents to enable others to make bogus claims.
These included fictitious tenancy agreements, counterfeit payslips and forged letters from landlords, employers and GPs.
Operating between 2016 and 2021, by the time investigators smashed the ring it is estimated some 6,000 fake claims were submitted at a cost to the taxpayer of £54million – the biggest benefits con in British history.
A video recovered by police from gang member Gyunesh Ali’s phones showed him holding a wad of £20 notes then hurled into the air.
When police arrested Nikolova’s toyboy lover Stoyan Stoyanov – with the pair nicknamed The Bosses Of London by friends – they recovered more than £750,000.
Smaller sums were also seized from Tsvetka Todorova, Patritsia Paneva and Ali.
A high-end Audi and designer goods including watches, jackets and glasses were also recovered.
Following his initial arrest, Ali fled the UK to dodge justice – and the Daily Mail then revealed that while there, he set up a company to invest in property in the country’s second largest city Plovdiv.
It was also reported last March that Nikolova, who became eligible for deportation in October 2024 under the early removal scheme, could soon be kicked out of Britain.
The accelerated process to remove her was in part due to the length of time she served on remand while awaiting formal sentencing.
Another factor was Government policy allowing foreign criminals to be deported 18 months before their earliest release date.
In this instance, she only had to serve half of her sentence, after being arrested on May 5 2021.
