February 22, 2010
Three Sentenced in £2million Luton Fraud Case
Three men have been sentenced today at Luton Crown Court in connection with a major fraud involving benefit fraud and mortgage fraud.
Gillies St Juste, aka Anthony Yates or Mohammed Ibrahim, 2/9/64, of Basil Street, London SW3 was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to eleven charges, yielding a total fraud of £1,509,400. These were: eight counts of obtaining money transfer by deception, one count of having custody and control of a false instrument, one count obtaining services by deception and a further Fraud Act offence.
Mohammed Wasi Sheikh, 6/4/64, of Northview Road, Luton was sentenced to 15 months for eight fraud offences relating to housing benefit claims, income support claims and mortgage fraud. The charges were: four counts of false accounting, three counts of obtaining money transfer by deception and one count of failing to notify change of circumstances. The total value of his fraud was £398,482.96
Mohammed Zaki Sheikh, 13/3/62, (Wasi’s brother) of Cutenhoe Road, Luton was sentenced to 12 months suspended sentence, with 200 hours of unpaid work on one count of obtaining money transfer by deception i.e falsely presenting payslips in order to get a £199,000 mortgage on his home. Both brothers had also earlier pleaded guilty to these charges.
The investigation started nearly two years ago, when Luton Borough Council and the Department of Works and Pensions became suspicious about Mohammed Wasi Sheikh’s claiming benefits. Bedfordshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit became involved and started to look into Mohammed Wasi Sheikh. He had presented false details to obtain mortgages in order to buy property. It also become apparent that his brother had committed mortgage fraud and that both mortgages had been brokered by Gillies St Juste.
Det Con Giles Hutchinson, who investigated the case, said: “St Juste used his status as a mortgage broker to raise cash mortgages and purchase properties for himself and for others. We may never know the full extent of his fraud, but it probably extends to well over a hundred such transactions.”
“In one of the worse abuses, he presented a number of other people’s details without their knowledge to mortgage companies. He actually obtained a mortgage in his son’s name and also re-mortgaged his own mother’s home (for £144,000) without her knowledge using someone else’s details – even though she had paid off her own loan by completely honest means some years previously,” said Det Con Hutchinson.
“He then took the six figure sum and along with money from other frauds, used it to fund a lavish lifestyle. He presented fake documents such as payslips to obtain finance for himself and the sums of money involved are staggering. One of the charges relates to £60,000 that he raised on finance to buy an Aston Martin DB9 for himself at a purchase price of £110,000,” he said.
He was eventually traced by DC Hutchinson when he discovered that St Juste was on police bail for driving offences in the Metropolitan Police area. He was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and after the initial interviews the DB9 was seized by the ECU and has subsequently been returned to Aston Martin.
The Prosecution will now apply for a court order for the confiscation of the defendants’ assets, which means that some of the money will eventually come back to Bedfordshire Police to fund more such investigations.
“Benefit fraud often runs hand in hand with other types of crime. The council investigation team have established an excellent working relationship with Bedfordshire Police and the DWP and in this case, that relationship has yet again successfully brought to justice three accomplished fraudsters,” said Paul Taylor, Head of Investigation Team for Luton Borough Council.
“When people commit benefit theft, they don’t get away with it. They face imprisonment, fines and other penalties. We will also make sure they pay back the money they have stolen from the taxpayer and seek to ensure any proceeds from their crime are confiscated too.”
The Economic Crime Unit is responsible for looking after most of the complex financial investigations carried out by Bedfordshire Police, with some of the unit’s cases running into several million pounds.
Although this case was led by the police, it is another successful partnership between detectives, the Department of Works and Pensions, Luton Borough Council and the Crown Prosecution Service. As with recent high-value fraud cases involving the Biryah brothers and Maxwell Onibokun, the police have played a huge part in gathering the necessary evidence but it was the diligence of the other bodies which meant the fraud came to light in the first place.
