- MoS reporter posing as newly arrived Bulgarian offered illegal papers
- Follows relax of benefit restrictions on New Year's Day for migrants
By SIMON MURPHY and MARIA AVRAMOVA
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Eastern European migrants are being offered expert help to fraudulently milk the benefits system by an accountants agency run by a Bulgarian businessman, a Mail on Sunday undercover investigation has revealed.
Our reporter, posing as a newly arrived Bulgarian migrant seeking to claim benefits, was filmed being illegally offered bogus documents to support her application by an ‘advice’ agency in North London yesterday.
The news comes as work and benefit restrictions were relaxed by the Government on New Year’s Day for migrants from the EU’s two poorest nations, Bulgaria and Romania.
Galia, left, and Nina at Premium Advice 4 U Ltd in Wood Green, North London speaking to our undercover reporter
Our investigator, Maria, a 25-year-old Bulgarian graduate living in London, told the company – Premium Advice 4 U (PA4U) in Wood Green – that she had been in this country for two months, working cash-in-hand as a cleaner without paying tax or National Insurance, but now wanted to see what benefits she could claim.
Two women employees, Galia and Nina, spoke to her for around 45 minutes and much of their advice was legal and correct.
But they also told her they could draw up bogus paperwork, falsely stating she had cleaned both their houses to back up a housing benefit claim.
PA4U, wedged between a shop with a hand-painted sign reading ‘Houses cleared’ and an accountancy firm, charges £20 for an hour-long consultation and its quarter-page advert in London-based Bulgarian-language newspaper, BG Ben, claims that it can help with ‘any type of benefits’.
The sole director of the company, which was registered in October last year, is 37-year-old Bulgarian Hristo Trifonov. He also runs a firm called Right Cleaners Limited, which changed its name from Safetrans Logistic Ltd in June last year and lists its activities as ‘freight transport by road’.
Change: Romanian migrants arriving at Luton Airport on the first day since the lifting of travel restrictions
When The Mail on Sunday contacted the company, a man who called himself Ilian said he offered face-to-face consultations on benefits for £20, plus additional charges for extra services.
These include a £50 ‘registration fee’, £20 for help applying for a National Insurance number, £60 to register as self-employed, and £60 to prepare a tax return.
PA4U also claims to provide help and advice with bank accounts, opening a limited company, arranging car insurance, MoTs, and exchanging a Bulgarian driving licence for a UK version.
There is no suggestion that any of these activities involve any improper activity.
At yesterday’s consultation, the first woman, Galia, advised Maria that if she wanted to claim housing benefit she would need a National Insurance number.
But, as a self-employed person, she would have to submit work records and references along with her application to prove her past income.
Galia even suggested she and her colleague Nina would be prepared to lie in writing to benefits officers, stating that their own homes had been cleaned by our reporter.
The true cost of our open borders: The Mail on Sunday story last week
Galia explained that Maria would need ‘contracts with clients, references from clients. If you do not have them, we can help you.
‘We can give you references and if they [the authorities] call, they will call us to confirm.’
When Maria asked whether the arrangement was legal, Galia assured her it was.
To apply for housing benefit from a local authority, claimants must fill in a 40-page form giving details of their income and outgoings, including rent.
Crucially, for self-employed people who have not been in business long, they must provide a ‘summary of their trading records’ plus copies of invoices and payments.
When approached by The Mail on Sunday last night, Mr Trifonov said: ‘We did not offer to prepare bogus documents to support a housing benefit application.
‘We suggested that if she needed help with references to apply for National insurance number, she could clean our houses and we can confirm that she has done so.’
Another firm in Wood Green, called Alex Developments Ltd, also gives advice about benefits, tax and National Insurance, but its staff did not suggest anything improper or illegal.
When Maria asked Bulgarian-born director Stroumen Paounov, 48, about claiming the Jobseeker’s Allowance while working, he replied: ‘I wouldn’t advise it because you will get caught.’
He charged £40 for an hour’s consultation in which he explained how to claim housing benefit, register for National Insurance, and he also offered help filling out the forms at the same hourly rate.
Immigration pressure group Migration Watch UK has warned that a total of 250,000 migrants from the two countries are likely to travel to Britain in the next five years, increasing pressure on the Health Service and schools.
The Government has banned Romanians and Bulgarians from claiming out-of-work benefits for the next three months, but Migration Watch forecasts that in-work benefits such as housing benefit and tax credits for low-paid workers will lure many of Romanians and Bulgarians currently working in Spain and Italy, as British handouts are significantly more generous.
Migration Watch’s figures claim that single migrants from Romania and Bulgaria can earn five times more in the UK than at home, a wage topped up by the UK’s generous tax credits system.
- Additional reporting: Nick Craven
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533889/Exposed-Bulgarian-fixers-tell-new-arrivals-UK-We-fake-documents-claim-benefits.html#ixzz2pVVPbVHN
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