A MUM who created a false identity to milk over £70,000 from the benefits system has been spared jail.
Leyla Yusuf, 31, of Garthorne Close, Moss Side, posed as a penniless asylum seeker from Somalia in a scam to double the amount she received in state handouts.
In reality, the mother-of-five has Dutch nationality and enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle with property in Dubai.
Yusuf had been fiddling the taxpayer for seven years when she was caught by a sting earlier this year.
Suspicious officials at Manchester council's benefit department set up simultaneous appointments for Leyla Yusuf and her fraudster alter ego, 'Leyla Hassan'.
When the same woman turned up for both appointments the department's suspicions were confirmed and in October Yusuf was arrested.
But when Yusuf appeared at Manchester Crown Court a judge spared her a prison term for the sake of her children – the youngest of whom is just six weeks old.
She was handed a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years with supervision, plus 300 hours unpaid work.
Soon after arriving in Britain on a Dutch passport in 2002 with her husband and two of her children, Yusuf invented 'Leyla Hassan'. She gave her persona the same year of birth, telephone numbers, and even some of her own children.
Once she had immigration status under the false name she was able to get a national insurance number and make claims for child benefit, housing, council tax, income support, tax credits and community care grants, while claiming an empty property at Rosebery Street, Moss Side as her address.
Yusuf was sentenced to a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years after admitting six counts of false accounting and one charge of failing to declare.
A further four counts relating to an extra £30,000 she fiddled by claiming she was living apart from her taxi driver husband were left to lie on file.
Sentencing, Judge Anthony Hammond said Yusuf had perpetrated a 'cynical milking of the system' which was 'well-executed to say the least'.
Ian Birch, defending, said that Yusuf had paid £1,500 to a 'Somali lawyer' who told her she could not claim benefits as a Dutch citizen and advised her to create another identity.
On hearing this His Hon. Judge Hammond said: "There are one or two dubious practitioners in that area making an awful lot of money from legal aid."
Yusuf is currently making repayments to Manchester City Council and it is understood that Department of Work and Pensions investigators may try to recoup some of the cash by going after her property in Dubai.
Passing sentence, His Hon. Judge Hammond said: "You have defrauded this country of over £70,000 by a deliberate and cynical manipulation of the benefits system 'you richly deserve to go to prison and your husband is lucky he's not in the dock with you.'
He added: "As it is you have five children, the youngest of them is only six weeks of age and the next youngest is two years of age. Were I to be sending you to prison it's going to be very difficult for someone to look after the two-year-old, the youngest child would go with you into the prison."
Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Yet another immigrant abusing our country. I did not see any order to repay ANYTHING. WHY?
The facy that she has 5 children should not have stopped her being given an immediate custodial sentence. At least that way we will not have to support a 6th child!!!!!!!!!!
Send her to jail, let her serve her sentence (3 years?) confiscate her property abroad, then deport her. Easy.
Rubbish! This was a deliberate ploy to make false claims. Make her/them repay the money and deport her back to Holland with a 5 year no re-entry clause.
Soft senternces like this simply encourage others to try the same trick/s.
They know they wont even try to negotiate the legal system in Dubai to recoup any of the money she owes, so why bother to say it. This is one case where I say send her back to wherever she has come from. This isn't some poor, broke person with a family, trying to get by any way she can. This is a cynical fraudster who from day one has been abusing the trust of the nation that has given her a home. Send her back to Holland if she is a Dutch citizen. Surely the EU cant stop us doint that?
His Hon. Judge Hammond - I think it's about time you resigned. This sentence is completely inappropriate. She has stolen over £70,000 from the hard working people of this country and you give her a suspended sentence?! You're obviously don't care about the role you have in this country and therefore don't deserve it.
She should have been deported at the very least.
His Hon. Judge Hammond you should be ashamed and the outrage of people in this country and the backlash that it causes is on the heads of people like you
And the £70,0000? I'm assuming that will never be paid back and as per usual the Tax payers foot the bill yet again?
Unbelievable she cannot go to prison because of her children, what is wrong with her husband? Why can’t he look after the children? Why is she still allowed to stay in this country? She abused this country’s hospitality, we are the idiots for putting up with these scroungers. This country is a joke and the laughing stock of the world no wonder we nearly bankrupt when the courts can write off 70 thousand and another 40 grand, not bad considering she hasn’t who hasn’t paid a penny into the system. I don’t blame anyone for getting out of this country in the end the government will have achieved their goal to turn it into a third world country.
Yet again we see the double standards of the UK legal system. There have been plenty of similar cases involving much less money over a shorter period of time where the accused has been sent to prison. One recently involving a landlady claiming while running a pub.
Under this government so many people are scared to death of being accused of racism that they err very much on the side of caution, this is particularly true of the legal system, and the light sentence in this case illustrates it very well.
She is a Somalian with Dutch nationality, property in Dubai, arrived here as a 'penniless asylum seeker' ,gave birth to 3 children in the UK, commited fraud over a 4 year period ------ We leave ourselves wide open and must be a big joke to people with this level of cunning.
This is why genuine asylum seekers get a hard time, for that alone she should be deported.
If she's done the crime let her do the time. It was her choice and she new she had children and didn't take them into account.
Why is she in this country and how is she allowed to remain here claiming assylum when she's has Dutch nationalality? She was able to deceive the system so easily, and then more or less gets let off, what lesson is that sending to the rest of these so called 'assylum' seekers in the EU?
Let us have the vote, give us the facts and let us vote. The EU are as much to blame for us being made mugs as the rubbish immigration system and all those who dupe it are.
she should have got a jail sentence. as a tax payer she stole my money and i want her to receive a jail term. i'm the victim here and i'm not happy.
"Well what a shock , is it any wonder the B N P , are gaining popularity when we have cheating , fraudulent people like this coming into the country hiding behind the term ASYLUM , send her back to holland , tighter controls are needed , we are a bloody joke , this country is gone to the dogs ,
BETTY SWOLLOCKS , LEVENSHULME , NOT AS WARM AS DUBAI ????
And people wonder why the BNP get votes?
Another member of the vermin group spared jail because of her child, Judge you are a prat
So basically all the hard work it took to capture was wasted because they let her off. No justice here.
doesn't even have to pay back the money, is she also an illegal overstayer and 5 kids even more payouts by the soft mug UK no wonder we are nearly bankrupt as a country
"Department of Work and Pensions investigators may try to recoup some of the cash by going after her property in Dubai". I really, really hope they do and whilst they are at it, look into all her assets here in the UK. I wonder how many other 'asylum seekers' we have in this country holding a European passport? Close the borders, now! Stop economic migration and all so-called 'asylum seekers' should be held in a secure unit until exhaustive checks are carried out.
Well having property in Dubai ain't worth bragging about really- not worth the ground its built on at the moment so we can kiss good bye to the money spernt on that.
It is frightening to discover the scams 'THESE' people are constantly getting away with. Yes ! and I do mean 100s if not 1000s of the supposedly penniless asylum seekers and migrants attracted to the fat, laxed benefit system of this once proud Britain.
The court sentences are pathetic,(can you imagine her punishment, if still in Somalia ?) this woman should have all illegal assets confiscated and immediately deported, along with the rest of the family !
Make her pay back all that money she stole plus interest, and then sent her back to Holland.
My relative (a police officer) told me that large number of criminals are encouraged to commit crime because they know their circumstances (kids etc) will prevent them from going to prison. Those in the know, know the system. Why is it police know this scam but judges do not.
If we implemented a zero tolerance policy and started sending these criminals to prison EVERY TIME, the penny would soon drop.
Also whats wrong with offering her prison or repay the money. Why should we have to try and reclaim property abroad (added expense etc), make her do it or prison.
When our own can't get what is due this makes a mockery of the benefits system. How many more Yusuf's are out there?
we wonder why the uk is the laughing stock of the world,the minimum she should have got is deportation