A group of housing benefit assessors used dummy claimants to defraud the taxpayer of £1million, a court heard.
Menelik Cowan, 37, and six other council workers allegedly paid the cash into bank accounts opened with false passports.
Lambeth, Kingston, and Barking and Dagenham Councils were cheated in a decade-long fraud which ran between 2006 and 2016, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Cowan, his then-girlfriend Natasha Francis, 38, his brother Hugh Small, 39, Cassandra Johnson, 37, Jessica Bartley, 35, Rahel Asfaha, 36, and Alexander Williams, 39, were working for the local authorities at the time.
Jessica Bartley (left), Hugh Small and Mgeini Khanye (right) are pictured leaving Southwark Crown Court after an earlier hearing
Gareth Munday, prosecuting, said the assessors put through a vast number of false claims using fake identities.
He described the scam as a ‘fraudulent business on a grand scale and against the public purse, in particular against local housing benefits offices’.
‘When I say it is a business, that is exactly what this was. This was an organised crime conducted in a businesslike fashion.’
He said two alleged fraudsters, Bashiru Tahiru and Elaine Agyemang, are not before the court.
‘They are not here for trial because they are not in this juristiction – they have run away.’
The pair took their cut and diverted cash back to the council workers, and others including Williams’ uncle Derek Williams, 58, and Donna Francis, 57, the court heard.
‘Donna Francis and Derek Williams…received monies into their bank accounts.
‘There is largely no dispute that the claims in this case, the claims that were processed by the seven housing assessors, that they were false, that they were fraudulent.
Derek Williams (left) and Natasha Francis (right) are allegedly part of a gang of fraudsters who stole £1million from multiple London councils
‘These defendants were uniquely placed to take advantage of their knowledge of the system and their access to the system in order to breach the trust of the local authorities.
‘They were processing false claims, essentially for their own profit,’ said Mr Munday.
‘Mr Cowan is a link between Elaine Agyemang and Bashiru Tahiru. He was, at the time of these allegations, the partner of Natasha Francis.’
The prosecutor said police discovered text messages between Cowan and Tahiru discussing the council’s claimant processing system.
Cowan had texted Tahiru: ‘Make them work for sixteen hours per week, earning between 60 and 70 pounds per week.’
Mr Munday said: ‘So he’s providing the amount these claimants have to say they are paid. Why would a legitimate housing officer have to tell them?’
The texts continue: ‘Make them text me when they get to the office and get them to go to reception.’
Cassandra Johnson (pictured) denies two counts of fraud by abuse of position, possession of fake identity documents, and money laundering
Normally claimants are given a ticket when they attend the housing benefits office and a number is called out when it is their turn.
In the texts, Cowan instructs Tahiru’s fake claimant to ignore the ticket and to, ‘tell them to stay seated until I text them’.
Cowan would then lead the fake claimant to a booth to carry out the assessment himself.
The prosecutor said: ‘Mr Cowan was subverting to ensure that Agyemang and Tahiru were coming before his eyes so that he could process the false claims and not other people.
‘How is that anything other than fraudulent?’
He explained that texts also showed how Cowan was divulging address and salary information to Tahiru.
‘There can be no reason why Mr Cowan would be finding or providing address details for Mr Tahiru, certainly not to speed up legitimate claims because surely a claimant with a legitimate claim are acquainted with their own address.
‘There can be no reason for Mr Cowan to be providing Mr Tahiru with crib answers for legitimate claims – there is no legitimate reason because legitimate claimants wouldn’t need to be reminded what their employer is paying them.
‘The issue in Mr Cowan’s case is was he aware that these claims were fraudulent?
‘His friendship with Agyemang and Tahiru shows that he was part and parcel with Agyemang and Tahiru.’
The prosecutor said Agyemang and Tahiru were paying Cowan around £500 a week at one point.
When Cowan’s home was searched, police found a number of documents hidden in his kitchen, including a tenancy agreement in a black rucksack, relating to another scam.
The prosecutor said other documents were found under an electric heater in the kitchen and on a computer in Cowan’s home.
‘The evidence is, therefore, that he was keeping all of this fraudulent material together,’ said the prosecutor.
‘It is clear that he was keeping the dishonest material all in one place.
‘The reason that he was doing all of this was that he was aware of the nature of the claims he was processing,’ said Mr Munday.
Cowan, from Enfield, denies three counts of fraud and laundering £150,759.92 of the £289,469 his accused of taking while working at Lambeth Council.
He has admitted one count of possession of identification documents with improper intention.
Asfaha, of Poplar, denies four counts of fraud, two counts of possession of identification documents with improper intent and two counts of money laundering.
She is accused of fraudulently claiming £82,331 while working for Lambeth Council and £182,907 at Barking and Dagenham Council.
Jessica Bartley, of Stockwell, worked for Lambeth Council and is said to have claimed £71,600.
She denies two counts of fraud, laundering £51,155 into bank accounts and possession of fake identity documents.
Natasha Francis, of Walworth, South London, denies fraud while at Lambeth Council and possession of fake identity documents.
Cassandra Johnson, of Brixton, denies two counts of fraud by abuse of position, possession of fake identity documents, and money laundering.
She is accused of hiding £57,514 of illicit housing benefit, and claiming £179,078 from Lambeth Council.
Hugh Small, of Fulham, worked for Kingston Council and is charged with fraud by abuse of position, possession of fake identity documents and money laundering.
He has pleaded guilty to money laundering and another count of fraud.
Alexander Williams, Brixton, denies fraud by abuse of position, possession of fake identity documents and Money laundering.
He is accused of illegally claiming £240,345 while working for Barking and Dagenham Council.
Donna Francis and Derek Williams, both of Brixton, deny concealing criminal property.
The trial continues.
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