Friday, December 12, 2014

Profoundly deaf couple and their son face jail for 'breathtakingly arrogant' £900,000 benefit fraud after spending cash on diamonds and foreign holidays

Profoundly-deaf-couple-son-face-jail-breathtakingly-arrogant-900-000-benefit-fraud-involving-fake-invoices-sign-language-interpreters.html

Shahab Reza, 52, admitted scamming £900,000 from Government in scam
Wife Shehnaz and children Abbas, 26, and Zainab, 22, denied part in plot
Shehnaz, 53, and Abbas found guilty of fraud charges at Southwark court
Jury could not reach verdicts on whether Zainab was involved in swindling
Prosecutor said the disability fraud was committed with 'scandalous ease'

By Mario Ledwith for the Daily Mail and Emma Glanfield for MailOnline

Published: 17:12 GMT, 11 December 2014 | Updated: 01:44 GMT, 12 December 2014

Shahab Reza, 52, of Perivale, London (pictured outside an earlier court hearing), has admitted his role in the scam and now faces years behind bars

A deaf couple fuelled a lavish lifestyle by using their disability to pocket nearly £1million in a sophisticated benefits fraud.

Shahab Reza, 52, and his wife Shahnaz, 53, were described as ‘breathtakingly arrogant’ after using the money to buy luxury properties and jewellery, including a ‘flawless’ £8,000 diamond.

The couple set up a complex network of fake companies around the world while still receiving benefits.

By submitting bogus invoices for sign language interpreters, they duped officials out of the huge sums with ‘scandalous ease’.

The elaborate scam saw the greedy couple net £800,000. They also lied to a council about their financial position, getting a further £100,000 in other benefits and tax exemptions.

They used the money, which was earmarked to help vulnerable individuals find work, to fund a holiday to Dubai, where they bought a £600,000 penthouse apartment.

Shahab Reza, an accountant who was described as the mastermind of the fraud, even recruited his university-educated children to take part in the scheme.

Their son Abbas, 26, and daughter Zainab, 22, spoke on their parents’ behalf and signed off paperwork from their early teenage years.

Abbas, who works as a doctor, even used the money to fund a ‘jolly’ to America while still a student and the siblings allegedly used the companies to harvest false expenses claims.

The children said they were ‘doing what they were told’ by their malicious father, who abused their vulnerability.

Shahab Reza orchestrated the four-year con by submitting fake invoices for sign language interpreters to the Department of Work and Pensions through the Access to Work scheme.

The money was then laundered through six sham companies set up in Canada, the United Arab Emirates and the UK to claim thousands every month in bogus fees.

Shahab even used his connections at a local mosque and training college to recruit fraudsters to widen the scheme. Their ‘employees’ were given a cover story and paid hundreds of pounds a month for their ‘silence and co-operation’, the court heard.

The couple’s lies about their financial circumstances also netted nearly £100,000 in benefits and tax exemptions from Harrow Council between 2002 and 2010.

Prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC said: ‘The ease with which these frauds were perpetrated is scandalous; the extent of the Reza family’s greed and ability to lie is breathtakingly arrogant.’

She told jurors at Southwark Crown Court that the son and daughter were ‘drawn into the fraud very early’.

A contract was found at the family home’s in Stanmore, north-west London, from 2008 that detailed an employment contract involving the brother and sister.

Shehnaz Reza, 53, (left) and her children, Zainab, 22, (centre) and Abbas, 26, (right), denied involvement in the plot but Shehnaz and Abbas were found guilty of fraud charges. The jury could not reach a verdict on Zainab

The couple's son Abbas (pictured outside court) was found guilty of fraud charges at Southwark Crown Court

‘The agreement was to employ [Zainab] for £400 a month – that is just a sham agreement,’ Miss Cottage said. ‘Shahab Reza knew he could trust his children to sign those documents and they would not ask any questions.

'We say that the young people – Abbas Reza and Zainab Reza – are intellectually able.

'Certainly we know that Abbas Reza is a fully trained and qualified doctor, Zainab Reza has a degree as well and they are no fools, however young they were when they first signed the documents.

‘The ease with which these frauds were perpetrated is scandalous; the extent of the Reza family’s greed and ability to lie is breathtakingly arrogant.'

The court heard how the family laundered the cash through accounts in Canada, the United Arab Emirates and the UK and then spent on luxuries.

" The ease with which these frauds were perpetrated is scandalous; the extent of the Reza family’s greed and ability to lie is breathtakingly arrogant

Prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC "

The family bought property in Dubai, a new luxury family home and £600,000 penthouse apartment.

Detectives later seized thousands of pounds worth of gold jewellery and gems in a safe at their house, as well as a £8,000 ‘flawless and beautiful’ diamond.

The family also bought investment bonds and savings policies with the stolen funds.

Abbas also splashed cash on a ‘student jolly’ to America in July 2009 and claimed back spending money and travel in expenses.

Shehnaz regularly claimed business expenses while Zainab claimed her travel costs and Abbas was claiming for his mobile phone insurance.

Zainab and her mother also claimed for travel and ‘everything they ate’ on a trip to Dubai to purchase an investment property.

Shahab orchestrated the four-year con by submitting fake invoices for sign language interpreters to the Department of Work and Pensions through the Access to Work scheme.

The accountant set up six sham companies to claim thousands a month in bogus fees on the basis of the fraudulent claim forms.

But he had to widen the pool of people the cash was being paid to so Shahab used his connection with his mosque and the training college UCanDoIt to recruit further fraud members.

Southward Crown Court heard how Shahab and his wife Shehnaz, who are both deaf, oversaw a four-year benefit swindle on the Department of Work and Pensions using false invoices for sign language interpreters

Shahab admitted his role in the con before the trial began and is facing years behind bars. The jury also found Shehnaz and Abbas guilty of fraud charges but were unable to reach verdicts in respect of Zainab.

The jurors also failed to return verdicts on a string of further charges and were discharged from considering five counts after more than 60 hours of deliberation.

The CPS has yet to indicate whether it will take the outstanding charges to a retrial. Sentencing has been adjourned until February.

Daiva Alisaskaite, 42, from Hackney, east London, was their cleaner, while Natela Babina, from Middlesex, also attended meetings at the house.

They were both found guilty of fraud by false representation and also await sentence.

They were given a cover story and paid hundreds of pounds a month for their ‘silence and co-operation’, the court heard.

Neither of them ever required an interpreter or support worker yet they submitted false claims worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Among those cleared was friend Saifur Rahman, 31, from Camden Town, northwest London, who had been charged with fraud by false representation and showed palpable relief as the verdict was read.

The jury failed to return a verdict for co-accused friend Ahsan Naseer, 29, from Birmingham, for the same charge.

Rahman, Naseer, Babina and Alisauskaite admitted signing the bogus forms but said they ‘did not knew there was anything dishonest’ about it.

Enquiries began after concerns were raised by Access to Work staff who investigated the fraud while the Reza family continued to make their bogus claims.

Abbas, Shehnaz, and Zainab Reza, of, Stanmore, north west London, each denied conspiracy to defraud for which no verdict was reached.

Shehnaz further denied a single count each of fraud by false representation, obtaining money transfer by deception, and dishonestly obtaining exemption from liability but was found guilty.

Zainab denied a further charge of fraud by false representation for which no verdict was taken.

Abbas denied but was convicted of one count of fraud by false representation but the jury was hung on a further charge of the same offence.

The jury was discharged from considering a charge that Abbas lied about his finances to the Student Loans company.