£54m benefits fraud gang jailed

A GANG of five Bulgarian crooks who cheated taxpayers out of almost £54million in Britain's biggest benefit fraud have been jailed.

- Paul Jeeves

The brazen fraudsters made 6,000 bogus claims for Universal Credit then used the cash to buy designer clothes, watches and luxury cars.

Footage showed one gang member throwing wads of cash on the floor.

Galina Nikolova, 38, Stoyan Stoyanov, 27, Tsvetka Todorova, 52, Gyunesh Ali, 33, and Patritsia Paneva, 26, stole a total of £53.9million.

Operating on an "industrial scale" out of the back of three corner shops in Wood Green, North London, they used stolen IDs to make the fraudulent claims, which were backed up with falsified documents. If any were turned down, the gang just kept reapplying until they were approved.