A gang of African asylum seekers pocketed £400,000 in a benefits scam - then used the cash to start building a hotel back home.
The four Angolans stole giro cheques and laundered them through fake bank accounts.
Demosthenes Barroso, 34, Paulo Alexandre, 38, Manuel Baltazar, 37, and Mizel Kinangh, 25 all face jail and extradition after being exposed in an 18-month investigation codenamed Operation Wasm.
Fraud officers have so far linked £243,000 of stolen cash to the men, although the true figure is believed to be twice that amount.
The gang, who were arrested in a series of raids, will appear at Oxford Crown Court for sentence on October 15 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Department of Works and Pensions.
At the home of Barroso, police found detailed blueprints of a hotel he and the gang were planning to build in Angola with the proceeds of their swindle.
Construction work had begun on the site. Police even found photos of Barroso - who claimed income support, disability living allowance, housing benefits and child tax credits - working on the site of the hotel.
The swindle came to light in May 2005 when fraud investigators discovered a fake giro, which was traced to Barroso, who had fled war-torn Angola to live in Oxford.
In a joint operation involving the Department of Works and Pensions, police and customs, investigators quickly worked out the cheque had been stolen from a London sorting office.
Alexandre, Kinangh and Baltazar had set up homes in Birmingham and Oxford after also coming to England to seek asylum.
Both Barroso and Alexandre claimed to have been soldiers in the Angolan civil war, and said on their asylum applications they had no option but to flee the country.
But rather than find work, the gang altered giros to fit 17 fake identities and began laundering the cash through 40 different bank accounts.
Barroso and his three accomplices were seen at various cashpoints across the West Midlands withdrawing the laundered money.
Checks with financial institutions then linked their different identities with their addresses in Birmingham, Oxford, Plymouth and London - and identical handwriting was also spotted on many of the giros.
Police raids on the Midlands homes of the gang also found false IDs and passports which proved they made frequent trips back to their homeland.
**So much for the pleas about being in danger, just like all asylum seekers they want free housing, health care and wall to wall benefits paid for by the taxpayers, whilst they sit around having a life of ease. They all lie about the reasons they come to the UK.
Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass criticised the systematic abuse of the benefits system by asylum seekers.
He said: "This is yet another example of how our porous borders are letting down every law-abiding person in this country.
"Our open-door policy is a disaster.
"We have to have an intelligent debate on immigration because this country is already overcrowded.
"You only have to look at the state of our roads and the lack of houses to prove that.
"This is a space, not a race issue, and we should be very particular about the kind of people we allow into this country."
**40 different bank accounts! That's more than the average Labour MP uses to fiddle their expenses.
Welcome to cool Britannia where fraudsters, shysters, spivs, thieves and criminals from all over the world head for a life of ease and indolence living off the taxes paid by the workers here in the UK. Mind you who can blame them in a way when you see the fine examples of honesty that we have in the House of Commons.
Oh and before you ask they will be first in the line for medical care and I am sure that fat ex tory(who was jailed for dubious share dealing and now head of the Immigration Advirsory Service)Keith Best still thinks these scum are better than the average UK passport holder.
I wonder if these African asylum seekers will claim that the money is reparations for the slave trade? Something that would please Toyin agbetu! When is this nation going to wake up and realise that none of the savages who come over here are in any real danger. These fuckers claimed that they were "in danger" back in their barbarian homeland and yet they had no problem with building a hotel out there.
Tags:Cool Britannia
New Labour
Illegal Migrants
Barbarians
Benefit Scroungers
4 people have spoken:
Danger my ass, i'm sure word travels fast amongst these types, suckers to the north, last one gets the least amount of benefits.
I wonder how much money was spent on the investigations alone, all this could have been avoided if they just had a strong immigration policy.
This gang of vermin should serve their time and be booted out but we all know this won't happen.
When they get out our bleeding heart lawyers and soft judges will kick into action, let them stay and award them yet more dosh (compensation) for being denied Bush Meat in Jail or some other load of rubbish.
How I hate and detest so called African Assylum seekers - never seen a real one yet that isn't thieving or scamming on the internet!
True, I am sure that this is just the tip of the benefits going abroad on dubious hotels and non existant relatives iceberg.
If my in box and spam filter is anything to go by the whole of Africa, that isn't in the UK, is sitting by a PC terminal sending out their rubish e-mails claiming to have Millions to give away so long as you are stupid enough to reveal your bank and personal details first!
If I were President I'd nuke Africa and start again. Mind you I'k keep all the Apes seeing they have higher IQs than your average African! What is the purpose of Africa and Africans anway? Something to keep the police and charities busy perhaps? Wh knows.
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