Asylum seeker stole £244k benefits from 22 councils in six-year spree
AN ASYLUM seeker claimed £244,000 in bogus benefits to fund her transformation into a social media fashion icon.
Tania Amisi, 27, defrauded 22 councils in a six-year crime spree using fake names and addresses.
The mother of three used the cash to rent a plush flat as she squandered the money on luxury holidays, designer clothes and a £25,000 handbag collection.
She showed off the spoils by posing for glamorous photoshoots, which she posted on Facebook, Instagram and other sites.
Admirers showered her with compliments on her good taste and enviable lifestyle.
Yesterday, Amisi was jailed for four years after being extradited from Paris, where she fled after pleading guilty to fraud in 2015.
She will give birth to a fourth child behind bars after a judge was told she was ‘addicted’ to crime and its proceeds.
The single mother came to the UK from the Congo as an asylum seeker when she was just 12, Southwark Crown Court heard. Her family claimed her father had been assassinated and she was granted indefinite leave to remain and settled in London.
But she spent six years tricking councils into paying her housing and other benefits, submitting 37 claims. She used the names Tania Abidi, Becca Amisi and Tania Alicia with seven different credit cards linked to the four aliases and two Congolese passports.
Investigators put her under surveillance after she tried to cash several counterfeit cheques.
When they raided her Chelsea Harbour home they found her huge fashion collection and full length pictures of her in designer dresses. She had binged on goods at Prada, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Yves Saint Laurent.
At the bottom of her wardrobe were Givenchy and Dolce & Gabbana handbags.
Amisi also set up a false fashion company called Le Chateau Dior and used a fake name Tania Westwood to claim handouts from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
She blew some of the cash on holidays to the Congo, Ivory Coast, America, Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey.
Officials found she had put in applications for a further £65,000 in benefits which were never paid out. In interview she claimed she was supporting her lifestyle by working in a betting shop.
But after pleading guilty to some of her crimes she cut off her electronic tag, booked herself on to the Eurostar and went on the run in France and Belgium.
Her bank statements revealed she spent several nights at luxury hotels while bragging about her travels on Facebook.
In March she even featured in a BBC documentary called Britain on the Fiddle.
Four months later she was arrested in the French capital after being convicted of a further 17 fraud offences in her absence.
Amit Karia, prosecuting, said: ‘Two addresses in Chelsea Harbour were raided and £25,000 worth of designer handbags were found at the properties. From this large sum of money stolen from this benefit fraud, she did live a lavish lifestyle and squandered that large quantity of money.’
Jailing her, Judge Michael Grieve said: ‘The methods used to commit these frauds involved careful planning and an ever increasing degree of complexity, involving false names and forged bank documents.
‘The nature of this offending was fraudulent from the outset and committed to fund your lavish and extremely comfortable lifestyle.
‘This was not a case of a person in dire financial straits submitting to temptation and making fraudulent claims to get by.
‘You committed these offences to fund your very affluent lifestyle on holidays, restaurants and designer handbags and clothes.
‘You had a flat in Chelsea paid for by your fraudulent activities and your son had all the material benefits he could want.
‘Once discovered you could not face up to the consequences and you fled to mainland Europe until you were brought back.
‘There’s very little evidence you have shown any remorse before you went to ground in Paris.’
‘£25,000 handbag collection’