Eight men and four women arrested in £500k benefits scam and homeless theft probe

A team of more than 50 police officers arrested the four women and eight men this morning at seven properties in the town as part of a three-month investigation, entitled operation cactus, carried out by the East Lancashire exploitation team.

The theft allegations relate to the alleged exploitation of homeless people through the control of their bank cards as well as the direct payment of universal credit benefits/ housing benefits into the bank accounts of home owners renting out their properties.

Police have already spoken to a number of alleged victims but are urging anybody who believes they may have been exploited to come forward.

Among the items recovered at he properties were several bank cards and a quantity of cannabis.

As a result of the raids four women, aged 49, 21, 24 and 36, and six men, aged 31, 59, 30, 20, 52, 43, and two men aged 45 - all from Blackburn, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and theft. They are all currently in custody.

Detective Superintendent Mark Vaughton said: "As part of operation cactus we have gone out and executed seven warrants in the Blackburn area. Twelve people have been arrested - eight males and four females.

Those arrests are in relation to conspiracy to to commit theft and conspiracy to commit fraud.

"The conspiracy to commit theft element is in relation to the alleged exploitation of vulnerable people where they have been living locally in the Blackburn area and we believe they have had their bank cards taken off them and their universal credit paid direct to people.

The conspiracy to commit fraud is in relation to what we believe to be fraudulent claims of disability benefit in the region of around half a million pounds.

"There are a number of properties in the area where we believe vulnerable people are living so it's hard to say how many potential victims we have got because we are still identifying individuals. But it is a significant number of people we have been speaking to.

"These are people who have potentially been homeless. We are still trying to establish they have ended up living where they are living and what the circumstances are.

"But they are susceptible, some of them, to drugs and alcohol misuse. But as a result of allegedly having their bank cards taken off them and not getting their universal credit paid directly to them - it's going to a third party -they have been left financially destitute, albeit with a roof over their head and some of those people have had to resort to crime.

"One of our concerns is the warrants have been executed this morning but we suspect the alleged theft may have been going on longer. So there may be other potential victims that we don't know about. If people feel they have been exploited we want them to contact the police on 101 and we will investigate those allegations."

Det Supt Vaughton said during their searches officer had recovered a number of bank cards that they believe don't belong to the people arrested, as well as a quantity of cannabis. However he said searched were continuing.

The investigation is being supported by the Insurance Fraud Bureau , the Department for Work and Pensions and Blackburn with Darwen Council. 
 

Det Sgt Stu Peall said: “Today’s action is the culmination of months of work looking at not just benefit fraud but specifically a number of tenants, who are particularly vulnerable people suffering with drug and alcohol issues, potentially feeling coerced into signing over the payment of their benefits to the person or people they rent their property from. This means they never see or have ownership of the money they are entitled to.

“On top of this, some tenants have had their bank cards taken from them meaning they have had no access to cash they may need.

“We think that this has been going on for some time and that there are more victims than we are aware of. If you think that you or a friend or family member could have been a victim of this kind of exploitation, please speak to us. We appreciate that you may feel apprehensive, concerned or scared to make contact but it is really important that you tell us what has happened.”

Call police on 101 quoting incident reference 543 of June 19.