Gang of Eastern European fraudsters who milked the British benefits system to claim nearly half a million pounds were jailed today.

Gang of Eastern European fraudsters who milked the British benefits system to claim nearly half a million pounds were jailed today.The gang knew how easy it was to defraud "Benefit Britain" and that it was unlikely their applications would ever be checked properly, the court heard.They set up a sham company in the north east of England enabling its employees to claim benefits designed to help low income families.In reality, the employees flew into this country for only a few days - enough time for their applications for working tax credits, child tax credits and child benefits to be processed - and then left again.In all, the six masterminded 55 benefit applications during 21 months, costing the British taxpayer £457,785, Newcastle Crown Court heard.Paul Simpson, prosecuting, said the gang - two from the Czech Republic and four from Slovakia - set up a company called Ragob Building Services on Tyneside.Then benefit applications on behalf of its workers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia were made on the grounds they were working fewer than 16 hours a week - meaning they were entitled to claim working tax credit and child tax credits if they had children.

"The prosecution says that this group were involved in the facilitation of persons into the UK solely for this fraud to take place," he said.

Mr Simpson said the applicants - referred to by the gang as "horses" - returned to their homelands, where they were able to withdraw the benefits.The court heard each claimant would have received a total of £11,889.08, or £566.14 a month, a proportion of which was handed over to the gang.The UK Border Agency, police, HM Revenue & Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions and Newcastle City Council worked together to smash the fraud ring during an operation codenamed Musca.Petr Bogar, 36; Jarmila Konopova, 51, both of Walcher Grove, Gateshead; Miroslav Bogar, 54; Martin Bogar, 35; Paulina Bogarova, 34, all of Delaval Road, Scotswood, Newcastle; and Martin Balog, 26, of Mead Walk, Walker, Newcastle, all admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation between January 2008 and last October.Mr Simpson said Petr Bogar was the company director of Ragob Building Services and his wife, Jarmila Konopova, was the company secretary.The others were all described as facilitators.Their role involved preparing false payslips, filling in forms and collecting and dropping people off at Leeds Bradford Airport.When arrested on October 7 last year, Petr Bogar told investigators: "I suppose it was only a matter or time."
Mr Simpson said Ragob Building Services never really operated as a company.
"It was not known by trading standards departments or local authorities," he said.
"There were no company accounts, it was not VAT registered and no VAT was paid."
Police recovered documents for six people, forged payslips for seven and computer software to produce fraudulent payslips from Petr Bogar's home.Of the 55 employees that submitted applications for benefits, 38 were successful and 17 were rejected.Tony Davis, mitigating for Balog, a married father of two, explained how easy it was to defraud the British taxpayer."It is not a sophisticated fraud in any way, shape or form," he said."The reality is that this country is known as 'Benefit Britain'. This defendant cannot be held responsible for that.
"The fact that this system is open to abuse, in my respectful submission, is not in the minds of the sentencing guidelines or Court of Appeal."This is a situation where people are allowed to apply, filling in minimal paperwork, using a system of interviews which is lax to say the least."There does not appear to be any checks or balances whatsoever following the granting of an award of child benefit and the like.
"The Crown would confirm that this sort of fraud is still going on."Richard Bloomfield, for Petr Bogar, said his client expected a custodial sentence.He said: "I have to accept a lot of money wrongly left the public purse as a result of what he was involved in one way or another.

"Without diminishing what has happened here, these are not the first people to have perpetrated this type of fraud. All the indications are that they won't be the last."

Petr Bogar was jailed for four years; Martin Bogar and Martin Balog were each given three-year jail terms; Jarmila Konopova was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment; and Paulina Bogarova received 18 months' imprisonment.

Miroslav Bogar will be sentenced later.Passing sentence, Judge Beatrice Bolton said the scam was well organised, involving defrauding the British taxpayer out of nearly £500,000."It seems to me that what happened to the money claimed does not matter in the context of this case as how much money was defrauded from the UK Exchequer," she said."In this case, over a period of 21 months, over £451,000 was claimed from the Exchequer.
"It has been suggested to me on behalf of some of the defendants that this is not quite the scam it appeared to be and that some of them carried out work.
"This company was set up for illegal purposes because, even if work was carried out, it was never declared and it was black market money."
Judge Bolton added: "It is unfortunate that the system was not tougher but nevertheless there was a high degree of criminality in fraudulently setting about exploiting the system in order to gain."