A couple involved in a £720,000 benefits fraud scam splurged their ill-gotten riches on a luxury lifestyle of designer clothing, bags and jewellery, including a £12,500 Rolex watch.
Investigators found cash receipts for the items, as well as iPhones, sunglasses, and a spa hotel visit, when they searched the homes of Wojciech Kowalski and his girlfriend Wiktoria Packowska.
The Polish nationals came to the attention of the authorities in June 2020 when they were stopped trying to leave the UK via the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone.
A court heard that after they claimed they were only taking £1,000 each on their journey to mainland Europe, Border Force officers found approximately £62,000 in cash, much of which was stuffed down Packowska’s leggings.
But it was at their two Essex homes – one searched at the time of their initial arrest and a second 14 months later – that a “treasure trove of tools” demonstrating the true extent of their criminality was discovered.
This included fake Polish identity cards, numerous mobile phones, sandwich bags filled with SIMs, multiple bank cards, benefit claim documents, utility bills, passports and birth certificates.
Notebooks were also found with handwritten details of hundreds of names, addresses, dates of birth, bank account and national insurance numbers, answers to security questions and landlord details.
Further evidence of the scam in the form of images of passports, cash, and false tenancy agreements, as well as screenshots of internet banking details, was discovered on Kowalski’s phone.
The crooks were also undeterred by their arrests in June 2020, choosing to continue with their deceitful roles as “day-to-day managers” of the fraud until they were arrested for a second time in August 2021.
On that occasion, Packowska was even brazen enough to strap the expensive Rolex to her wrist.
But on Monday she could be heard whimpering as she and her partner were led from the dock at Canterbury Crown Court to start their jail terms for what a judge said was “commercial scale benefit fraud” of the Department of Work and Pensions.
Kowalski and Packowska, both 28, admitted two offences of conspiracy to commit fraud by making false claims for Universal Credit (UC) and housing benefit between May 1, 2019, and August 12, 2021.
“This was benefit fraud on a commercial scale…”
They also pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing articles for use in frauds, namely documents pertaining to the personal details of third parties for use in fraudulent UC claims.
These were found at addresses in Carlton House, High Road, Ilford, on June 14, 2020, and Pulse Court, Maxwell Road, Romford, on August 13, 2021.
In relation to the £62,290 cash found on them when stopped at the Channel Tunnel, Kowalski and Packowska admitted an offence of possessing criminal property.
Their claims however that they had acted under pressure and coercion from others involved in the scam, as well as their assertions that their financial benefit was limited, were rejected by the court.
Furthermore, Kowalski and Packowska were told by the judge Recorder Daniel Stevenson that although the total loss to the public purse was £723,232, the figure could have been “far greater” had their illicit enterprise not been foiled.
Jailing them both for four years, he said: “Your activity only ceased because it was discovered. The fact that it continued in the same way following your first arrest shows that you had no intention of stopping your illegal conduct.
“The principal victim of your fraud is the Treasury. That means that every person in this country who works hard and pays their taxes to support the welfare state is a victim.
“Most right-thinking people in this country believe that we should have a system whereby those persons who are unable to work, either through disability or lack of opportunity, or who need financial support with child or housing costs, can receive financial assistance from the state.
“You both abused that support system by setting up multiple false claims to make money. This was benefit fraud on a commercial scale.”
The judge added that although they had not received all the proceeds of the “sophisticated and organised” fraud, they had benefited financially to the tune of “tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands”.
“The money you received and expected to receive is a reflection of the importance of your managerial role within it,” he explained.
“The fact that, without very much consideration, you felt able to purchase luxury goods including a £12,500 Rolex watch shows that, for you, this was an enterprise which made you significant sums of money.”
The court heard neither defendant has any previous convictions or cautions.
Confiscation proceedings will be held at a later date.