Jail after £113,000 benefits fraud is cracked

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Jail after £113,000 benefits fraud is cracked

Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Fraudster: Illie Schian got three years

By Nick Tarver

A ROMANIAN fraudster and suspected child trafficker has been sentenced to three years in jail after he was found guilty of benefit fraud and money laundering.

Illie Schian, 46, from Enfield, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court last Friday having pleaded guilty to defrauding various local authorities, including Enfield Council, out of a total of £113,000.

He is also one of 26 men to have been charged in Romania in connection with child trafficking and has been recommended for deportation once his sentence finishes.

Schian was arrested on July 20 following an investigation by the Operation Golf team, which is the UK half of a joint Romanian and British police unit. It was set up to tackle a specific Roma organised crime gang in London, which is believed to have trafficked 181 children into Britain for the purpose of begging, stealing and benefit fraud.

Chief Inspector Colin Carswell, from the Operation Golf team, said Schian has been living in the UK since 1999 under the false name of Nelus Gheorghe.

“As a member of an organised crime gang he spent ten years in the UK exploiting the weakest from his own community as well as making a deliberate and sustained attack on the UK benefits system,” he said.

“He portrayed the image of being in need of money from UK benefits. Our Romanian colleagues and my team proved this to be a lie. In Romania he owned a mansion, a BMW X5, Audi TT, motorbikes and quad bikes. In one of his Romanian bank accounts was the equivalent of £20,000. Schian now needs to answer the trafficking charges laid against him in Romania.”

Andrew Stafford, Enfield Council cabinet member for finance, said: “This is a great victory for decent hardworking taxpayers and genuine benefit claimants everywhere.”