POLICE raids have smashed a racket in which hundreds of Bangladeshis flew in to Britain for a day to claim housing benefit.
The migrants, based in Italy, are alleged to have gone to jobcentre interviews to get National Insurance numbers which they used on fake wage slips.
They then just needed bogus addresses to exploit rules allowing EU citizens to apply for handouts.
The fraud is believed to have netted millions over three years and is one of the largest of its kind uncovered in this country.
An investigation was launched last year by police, the Department for Works and Pensions and East London’s Redbridge Council after reports of a significant number of Bangladeshis with Italian passports arriving at Stansted with return flights booked the same day.
The swoops included one on a flat which had been used as an address by 400 claimants. It is above a restaurant in Bow.
Another came at the Ilford HQ of charity Families for Survival UK. Trustee Asma Khanam, 46, was arrested at her home nearby.
The charity is one of at least five groups suspected of providing fake job details. It boasts on its website of providing support for Alzheimer’s sufferers in Britain, an education project in Kenya and an orphanage in Bangladesh. A director of a recruitment company was also held along with nine other people.
More arrests are expected in the next few weeks.
The Redbridge probe is the first to lead to arrests, but other London councils including Newham and Tower Hamlets are understood to have been hit with similar scams.
A source said: “Many hundreds were able to claim. On average, they received around £9,000 each.
“The sums run into millions and are just the tip of the iceberg on what is a much wider problem.”
Khanam and Habibur Rahman, 35, have appeared before Redbridge magistrates charged with conspiracy to defraud. Both were remanded on conditional bail.
Eight others have been charged and will appear in court this week.