Bulgarian at heart of Britain’s biggest benefit fraud could be back home with children within months
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bulgarian-heart-britain-biggest-benefit-110000607.html
Posted by weregonnamakit
Bulgarian at heart of Britain’s biggest benefit fraud could be back home with children within months
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bulgarian-heart-britain-biggest-benefit-110000607.html
Posted by weregonnamakit
22 Comments
“Galina Nikolova, 39, was sentenced in May 2024 after a gang “systematically plundered” the UK’s welfare system and stole at least £50 million of taxpayer money.” The judge replied: “I had anticipated she would be in custody for many years. It comes as something of a surprise to me that within a period of months, she may be in a position to be deported and reunited with her children.
I’ve read this today. A few points.
1. It’s incredibly frustrating people like these take advantage of system designed to support vulnerable especially in a country which welcomed them.
2. Benefit system needs reform for more stringent and more advanced checks. Procedures must improve to prevent such proactively as well as auditing must improve to spot such vulnerabilities. It is unacceptable that crime was brought to attention by Bulgarian police who noticed village lavish lifestyle.
3. Sentencing must be stricter. It makes no sense she was given 7 years only out of which she stayed in jail for half of it only. More importantly, the funds are nowhere to recover which to me sounds like “You haven’t searched good enough”. It encourages others to pursue crimes and spend little time in jail. Give 50 years of jail, work with authorities in Bulgaria and other countries to get hold off funds. There is no way all of these were spent.
I trust when she and her husband leave these shores they can never return. In addition any shortfall from the welfare fund should be deducted from any overseas aid we send Bulgaria’s way.
I would do 3 years for £50 million, why is this country so soft.
This country has completely lost the plot !! Small sentences for Fraud and violent crime , but the government put people away for long sentences for speaking their mind ! It’s a joke to be fair !!
How do you steal 50 million? Even if she did it over 20 years that is still 2.5 million a year and no one noticed?
I’m glad he didn’t issue any hurty words on social media, that would have been really serious.
How nice for her and her kids. I wonder how good a life they’ll have back in Bulgaria with the £50mil that they stole from the British tax payers?
>The only reason Nikolova has not yet been deported is that the Department for Work and Pensions is still trying to recover some of the money that she stole.
>Until the confiscation hearings have concluded, Nikolova cannot be sent back.
>**Prosecutors have been urged to be “realistic” about what they can expect to recover.**
Unless he is CEO of Thames Water he will only ever be the second biggest perpetrator of fraud on the UK taxpayer.
They are part of the mafia if they’re from Sliven.
This will be a tiny part of their operation. And these people were making over 100 claims a month from 3 fake high street agencies.
How many more are they running across the UK, never mind Europe?
Stealing billions and no one notices. Crazy.
I had a friend from E Europe who did live and work here but they knew a huge amount of people who would arrive, sign on then go back home and transfer the money each month.
They didn’t feel guilty or ashamed, they just thought we were crazy to be offering free money. ‘Well why wouldn’t I say yes to free money if it’s on offer’
We are just incredibly soft.
How the fuck did they make fake claims? I was demanded to come in with two broken feet or I’d be sanctioned and these cunts got away with fake claims for people living in Bulgaria?
And we never caught it, it was a Bulgarian police officer that figured out where the money came from?
Jesus on ice skates!
Sorry, your income will be taxed at 100% for the rest of your life, and then your kids…
Another fine example of the British judicial system benefiting the offender.
After they are deported are they allowed to return to the UK?
I ant believe as a person from the same country Ive never taken any benefits and basically paid for their shit life. UK shouldn’t be so soft, deport them or put them in jail instead of slashing disability benefits
This woman actually poses interesting conundrums for the usual tough-on-crime approach (though the article seems to be trying to obfuscate them). She’s imprisoned, but in the process of being deported, which makes sense: most people seem to agree that we should deport foreign criminals, rather than imprisoning them at massive taxpayer expense, right?
But how do you ensure that the deported criminal continues to face the rest of their sentence when they come from a country where that can’t be guaranteed due to corruption or other issues? Further, what if the criminal might have access to un-recovered proceeds of the very crime they’re imprisoned for if they are deported?
That all seems in play here, though the article is light on details. It seems likely the woman will walk free if deported to Bulgaria, and may be able to benefit from the 50 million her gang stole, the majority of which is still believed to be in Bulgaria.
However, the alternative is to keep a foreign criminal in British jail at significant taxpayer expense. Further, even if her sentence were longer or her release contingent on returning the funds, she’s only one member of the gang responsible for the fraud, and some members were evidently never caught. There’s likely only so much of the money, if any, that the legal system could recover through this woman even if she fully cooperated.
Stole 50 million pounds from welfare and gonna be free after months of jail time! Wow!
The world is certainly not fair to the decent people who are trying to live an honest life. I baffles me how a developed country can let this happen and then let the criminals go without a harsh prison sentence.
I saw a news several months ago, a student got thousands of pounds penalty over a stupid trainline rule. How can these both cases happen in the same country? How are they fair or proportionate?
Why in the living fuck is it even possible for a load of freshly shipped in bulgariens to claim benefits anyway.
Thats our fucking money! I break my back week in week out for 30% to be syphoned off to these thieving cunts taking advantage of our generosity.
I’m actually livid. This country is fucking finished.
Never mind….. Labour will make the sick and poor pay it back.
As usual if they aint British, they get let off scott free
A bit of a background here.
The woman is of Romani origin and saying anything negative about a Romani person gets you branded a racist and a scumbag so we pretty much sweep everything under the rug because we’re trying to be progressive.
Receiving benefits is generally frowned upon by Bulgarians, for better or for worse. In theory everyone agrees that a blind person or someone in a wheelchair should receive full support from the state but people with invisible conditions as well as those who are unemployed for whatever reason don’t really receive much in terms of money or sympathy.
I feel guilt and shame whenever an actual Bulgarian does something terrible and believe me, my country has plenty of ‘sins’ such as narrow mindedness, corruption, bad driving and so on.
But this woman is not Bulgarian. Please don’t think we’re all like her.