site.btaInterior Minister Stoyanov Distinguishes Ministry Officers for Detecting UK Benefits Fraud

Bulgarian caretaker Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov on Friday distinguished Ministry officers who detected a benefits fraud in Britain.

The Minister described the scheme as "intricate and large-scale". He pointed out that right at the outset information was received that Bulgarians were purchasing real estate and were spending lavishly without a legal source of income.

In what the media have dubbed "the largest benefits fraud ever uncovered in the UK, a Bulgarian gang of five systematically plundered the British welfare system stealing a total of GBP 53 million in taxpayers' money over four and a half years.

Police inspector Vassil Panayotov of Sliven (Southeastern Bulgaria) and the Sliven unit of the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime headed by Chief Inspector Slav Dobrev detected the industrial scale fraud in which several thousand residents of Sliven's Roma neighbourhood Nadezhda claimed falsely some GBP 2,000 monthly when people there started to demonstrate a luxury lifestyle.

"The nation owes gratitude to Inspector Vassil Panayotov," The Times of London wrote. "If his account is right, the Bulgarian policeman from Sliven deserves an MBE. He says he felt growing suspicion of an influx of unexpected cash-splashing in his town, with hundreds of people suddenly 'living like barons… receiving social benefits from the United Kingdom using the weaknesses in the British social system'. Some of the recipients had never even been to the UK, others had been given plane tickets to nip over for a quick photo op, standing outside a property to prove an address for Universal Credit," the daily reported.

The Bulgarian law enforcers promptly alerted their British counterparts, who tracked down the fraud ring leaders and arrested them.

Last week Galina Nikolova, 39, Stoyan Stoyanov, 28, Tsvetka Todorova, 53, Gyunesh Ali, 34, and Patritsia Paneva, 27, received various prison terms of 25 years and five months in aggregate for their involvement in the scheme.