Zimbabweans caught abusing the benefit system in UK

After my article on the Zimbabwean parents abusing their children for benefits, I was overwhelmed by calls and emails demanding that I write about adults who are abusing the benefit system in the UK. Many Zimbabweans are giving the country a bad name in the UK because of their love for money. Benefit fraud has been the most abused system in the UK and many Zimbabweans have joined the band wagon. Many have defended it without shame while have said they are taking our money which was stolen by the colonialists. Either way there is no and must be no justification of crime in any way. Eye for an eye makes the world blind.

A Zimbabwean by the name Shingirai Zvokunzwa made news when British fraud investigators followed a trail through social networking sites and immigration records to unmask the double life of a Zimbabwean benefits cheat. But justice caught up with Shingirai Zvokunzwa when a judge jailed him for 10 months for fiddling £28,000 from Reading Borough Council.

A court was told Zvokunzwa, from Wroxeter Court, Newstead Rise, Whitley, started claiming housing and council tax benefit in August 2006 when he told the council he was living alone and getting Job Seekers' Allowance. But three years later council investigators following up a tip-off discovered the house where he was living in east Reading was empty and neighbours said the occupant had moved to Canada.

But a full identity fraud investigation was launched jointly by the council and the Department of Work and Pensions after it was discovered Zvokunzwa had told his landlord his name was Tevin Mukonda.

The court heard it was then established that Zvokunzwa changed his name to Mukonda after arriving in Britain from his native Zimbabwe. In the name of Mukonda he had pocketed three years of government education grant on top of the state and housing benefits he had been claiming. He also got a student loan after enrolling at Reading University. But single students with no disabilities receiving full-time education are not eligible, in the majority of cases, for housing benefit.

Further information about Zvokunzwa was gathered from social networking sites, including Facebook, and it transpired that far from moving to Canada, he was living in Milton Keynes - where as Mukonda he had made another benefit claim.

Zvokunzwa admitted six offences of fraud when he appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court on February 2 and, on top of the jail sentence, he was ordered to repay the money he fiddled from Reading Borough Council. Reported the "Reading Chronicle" a newspaper in Reading. Zvokunzwa was not to be outdone hundreds of Zimbabweans have dipped their fingers into crime and have benefited at the expense of real sufferres. Jean Tugwete a 42 year old Zimbabwean lied her way into the job as PA to Andy Blundell at marketing agency Communisis in May 2010 before using the card to make £264,274 of fraudulent purchases over a three-year period.

Tugwete then repeatedly altered the American Express statements between April 2012 to February 2015 to cover her tracks.
She was jailed for three-and-a-half years for two counts of fraud and two of false accounting. Charity Moyo, 38,
She stole dresses, tops and shoes from Topshop and Debenhams, so they could return them for a refund at other stores in the North West. Originally charged with conspiracy to commit £170,000 fraud, but pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud committed in the resort in December 2013.

she was convicted and sentenced to eight months' jail suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work with six months' supervision. Carolie Nkomo, 35,She stole dresses, tops and shoes from Topshop and Debenhams, so they could return them for a refund at other stores in the North West.

Originally charged with conspiracy to commit £170,000 fraud, but pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud committed in the resort in December 2013.Evelyn Gore-Strachan Gore-Strachan a UK based Zimbabwean woman has been jailed for 12 years in Jail in Reading England after being convicted of 9 counts of accounting fraud.

 Evelyn who was earning a 6 figure salary of more than £100 000 per year engaged in fraudulent accounting offences in the past 5 years while working for Webtech Wireless and Britannia Pharmaceuticals in Reading Town UK.

Gore forged fictitious HMRC tax penalty invoices and paid huge sums of money into her own bank accounts. At one point she also paid huge sums of money close to £300 000 into Japanese Companies registered in her name. Ipaishe Charuma used false documents to gain an NHS bursary, training and work, has been sentenced in 2009 to 18 months' imprisonment for six fraud-related offences at Snaresbrook Crown Court (6th November, 2009). The total loss to the NHS was £72,782.69. The conviction follows an investigation by the NHS Counter Fraud Service. In the meantime THURROCK Council has successfully prosecuted a 42-year-old woman in 2014 that defrauded taxpayers and benefited by more than £300,000. Eniah Nhika was sentenced at Basildon Magistrates Court on Tuesday 23 September to 21 months custody, suspended for 2 years, and 200 hours of unpaid work and a 6 month home curfew after pleading guilty to 9 offences of using a false identity to commit fraud.

Patrick Malati a Zimbabwean living in Leeds claimed over one hundred and fifty thousand pounds from the Disability allowance claimimh that he was blind. Yes blind. He was arrested on a driving whilst drunk offence and it turned out he was a blind Zimbabwean on benefits.

The way the system works encourages people to claim benefits and avoid working for themselves.

There are many Zimbabweans in prison now for benefit frauds. Some are not yet arrested but the net is closing. Many Zimbabweans are working hard but their good efforts are being soiled by the few criminals littering the UK.

vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk