Three Jailed For Fraud

Three member of a family from Chatham have been jailed for a total of 11 years for a £680,000 tax credit fraud.

Three members of a family from Chatham have been jailed for a total of 11 years for a £680,000 tax credit fraud.

31 year old Darina Balogova, her husband Marek Balog who is 34, and her 32 year old brother Jaroslav Bado recruited Slovakian women so they could obtain the necessary documents and fraudulently claim the credits.

The women then returned to Slovakia leaving the gang to control and access the tax credit payments using the women’s bank accounts.

All three were arrested on 22 July 2010 and charged in April 2011. During searches of  properties carried out at the time of arrest, documents including 30 Slovakian passports, tax credit paperwork, national insurance cards, 50 birth certificates, bank cards, bank account details and just under £30,000 cash was seized by officers.

The gang were charged and found guilty of tax credit fraud and money laundering offences in relation to allegations that they transferred over £60K of the proceeds of the fraud to Slovakia.
 
Martin Brown, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC, said: "Criminals like these are motivated by pure greed and steal money that is meant to give financial help to the most vulnerable people in our society.

"HMRC is cracking down on tax and benefits fraud and I urge anyone who has information on this type of criminal activity to call the National Benefit Fraud Hotline on 0800 854 440."