Roma Leader Jailed For £10m Benefits Scam

A Roma community 'activist' who helped ensnare members of the Romanian Roma community struggling to apply for UK benefits into an elaborate scam aimed at siphoning off over £10m from the system has been jailed.

She was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court on Monday 8 November.

Lavinia Olmazu, 31, of Newlands Road, Woodford Green, who had earlier pleaded guilty on Monday 26 July to one count of conspiracy to supply articles for use in fraud between November 2007 and August 2009, had previously worked as a Roma education advisor and outreach worker to two London councils at different times.

Olmazu gained a public profile as a vocal advocate for Roma rights who attended various public protests - and used a company she set up called Roma Concern as one of the fronts for the fraud for which she has now been imprisoned.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's (MPS) Operation Golf unit uncovered the benefits scam as part of their ongoing joint investigation with Romanian Police into criminal activities in the UK connected to a major organised criminal network suspected of trafficking poor Roma families into the UK with the intention of exploiting them.

Superintendent Bernie Gravett, of Operation Golf, said: "Lavinia Olmazu aided and abetted members of an organised criminal network which in this case exploited these families to commit crime in the UK.

"This complex scam would have defrauded the UK authorities of more than £10 million had the plan fully succeeded.

"This was a long and painstaking case involving over 450 statements being obtained, a significant amount of surveillance and search warrants. As a result of the hard work of the Operation Golf staff, particularly Detective Constable Melanie Groves and Detective Sergeant Phil Bayfield (retired); these criminals have been brought to justice."

Detective Constable Melanie Groves said: "This is a clear case of Roma families who wished to improve their lives but were prevented from doing so by being exploited by their own people.

"Olmazu is an educated Roma lady who abused her position of trust and purported to be trying to help Roma people integrate into this country, yet actually assisted them to obtain benefits through false pretences. This undermines the work of those who are genuinely concerned with the difficult issues Roma people face throughout Europe."

Seven associates of Olmazu involved in aspects of the scam were previously sentenced to a total of more than nine years on Friday 16 July.

(BMcC/KMcA)