Criminal gangs luring Polish migrants to UK for benefit fraud

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Mar 6, 11, 17:00 #1

From today's BBC news:

Polish criminal gangs are defrauding the benefits system and conning banks by luring poverty-stricken Poles to Britain with false promises of work and then stealing their identities.

"I just grabbed my child and never went back.

"I left everything in the flat - a buggy, my child's cot and all of our clothes - everything."

Anna - not her real name - is a single mum in her late twenties, from Poland. She anxiously recalls how she fled a criminal gang in London who were using her identity to cheat the benefits system and run up large debts in her name.

Rest of article here.

guesswhoThreads: 23 Posts: 3,326 Joined: Mar 17, 10 ♀	Mar 6, 11, 17:23 #2
You would think, it's a good topic but no one seems to be interested to talk about it.

jonniThreads: 26 Posts: 4,181 Joined: Nov 27, 07 ♂	Edited by: jonni Mar 6, 11, 17:28 #3
Something happened to a Polish friend in London. He'd overpaid his tax by quite a lot and was sent a cheque for a refund. The cheque was stolen and cashed by someone (nationality unknown) who's operating a benefits scam from the house he rents a room in. Every week all sorts of mail from the Benefits Agency arrives, addressed to people he's never heard of, and someone always collects it.

TrevekThreads: 33 Posts: 2,155 Joined: May 21, 08 ♂	Mar 6, 11, 21:05 #4
Was he able to get it refunded? I would imagine whoever cashed it didn't have id. I remember when a friend of mine worked for a temp agency and they sent his wages to the wrong address...

jonniThreads: 26 Posts: 4,181 Joined: Nov 27, 07 ♂	Mar 6, 11, 21:10 #5
Trevek: Was he able to get it refunded? I would imagine whoever cashed it didn't have id. He had to get a crime number and it's still being processed by the revenue. It looks like the cheque was cashed at some dodgy cheque cashing place.

SeanBMThreads: 41 Posts: 8,727 Joined: Mar 10, 08 ♂	Mar 6, 11, 23:04 #6
jonni: stealing their identities. I.D. theft is a weird crime, it's strange to think someone could be claiming benefits in Ireland pretending to be me. Terrible thing to happen to a woman with child, I always think that the worst bastards you can meet in a foreign country are your fellow country men, they use and abuse you, I think because they "know" you.

isthatu2Threads: 13 Posts: 5,225 Joined: Apr 3, 08 ♂	Mar 7, 11, 00:45 #7
SeanBM: I always think that the worst bastards you can meet in a foreign country are your fellow country men Not just me then......the naive always lower their guard when they meet someone from "home",personaly I raise mine....

jonniThreads: 26 Posts: 4,181 Joined: Nov 27, 07 ♂	Mar 7, 11, 00:47 #8
isthatu2: .the naive always lower their guard when they meet someone from "home",personaly I raise mine.... Very wise. Of the British I know in Warsaw, a couple are great guys, most I wouldn't **** on if they were on fire. Something changes emigrants, and not always for the best.

isthatu2Threads: 13 Posts: 5,225 Joined: Apr 3, 08 ♂	Mar 7, 11, 00:53 #9
I think though,from experience you have to seperate the person who maybe wants a new start and is therefore a bit hazy about their past from those who are out and out crooks. Luckily Ive only really got mixed up with the former and suffered no worse than a bad case of the BS overdose.......

Wroclaw BoyThreads: 57 Posts: 5,478 Joined: Jul 3, 09 MEMBER ♂	Mar 7, 11, 10:33 #10
back in the day i remember reading all the adverts in Polish papers from poles advertising work in England for other Poles, of course you had to pay money up front. There were pages and pages of them.

warszawskiThreads: 60 Posts: 2,388 Joined: May 21, 10 ♂	Mar 7, 11, 16:33 #11
jonni: most I wouldn't **** on if they were on fire. Something changes emigrants, and not always for the best. So you've been to the " Tortilla factory" as well.

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	Mar 7, 11, 16:45 #12
warszawski: So you've been to the " Tortilla factory" as well. What's wrong with the Tortilla factory? Friendly bunch of people there (during the daytime and early evenings anyway, I tend to leave at roughly the same time that the live music starts). A far nicer bunch that the expats found in places like SPE or Platinium, that's for sure!

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Mar 7, 11, 16:47 #13

warszawski:

So you've been to the " Tortilla factory" as well.

Only when it would have been impolite not to. Good food though. To be fair, there are a few very nice expats, but there are also some tawdry gits.

A kind of mix of arrogance and desperation, sitting with overpriced beer; their only pleasure being misplaced schadenfreude and moaning about all the things they don't like in Poland.

I just deleted a long paragraph - too much of a rant, but the summary is that some of those guys (always guys) boast about what a great success they are, despite sleeping on people's sofas and not having two pennies to rub together, and look down on certain Poles because they don't speak English to them or lionise them just because they're foreign, even though the real reason is that they're a twat.

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Mar 7, 11, 17:03 #14

jonni:

Good food though

The food and staff are good at TF.

jonni:

A kind of mix of arrogance and desperation, sitting with overpriced beer; their only pleasure being misplaced schadenfreude and moaning about all the things they don't like in Poland.

Yep, "misery loves company"

I do find that whole expat thing a bit fake, If you don't want to complain and ***** about PL - your outside.

jonni:

summary is that some of those guys (always guys) boast about what a great success they are, despite sleeping on people's sofas and not having two pennies to rub together, and look down on certain Poles because they don't speak English to them or lionise them just because they're foreign, even though the real reason is that they're a twat.

We are in agreement on the above.

Assimilate or be unhappy, that is the motto of the day.

HarryThreads: 62 Posts: 8,508 Joined: May 2, 07 ♂ [Suspended]	Edited by: Harry Mar 7, 11, 17:07 #15
jonni: sitting with overpriced beer Ten zeds isn't exactly overpriced! Granted it isn't cheap but it is cheaper or the same as similar places. warszawski: Assimilate or be unhappy, that is the motto of the day.

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Mar 8, 11, 14:53 #16

Wroclaw Boy:

back in the day i remember reading all the adverts in Polish papers from poles advertising work in England for other Poles, of course you had to pay money up front. There were pages and pages of them.

And I remember the first few Poles that turned up in my small town. Shady looking fekkers,middle aged,big 'tasches, black leather jackets and brand new Polish registered BMW's and Audi's........

jonni:

some of those guys (always guys) boast about what a great success they are, despite sleeping on people's sofas and not having two pennies to rub together,

Lols,met a few of those on my travels too,its like some 1920s sub culture of englishmen wandering round europe living off past real or imagined glories...tragi comic,almost chaplinesque with a dash of Orwell.....

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