A fraudster used stolen identities and fake documents to claim more than £24,000 in housing benefit from Ealing Council as part of a £313,000 nationwide scam.
Javed Shaikh, 44, made fraudulent claims to 32 councils across England over seven years, with Ealing paying out £24,362 – the sixth-highest amount among the councils targeted.
The seven councils which paid out the largest amounts were Barnet (£44,471), Brent (£41,244), Islington (£28,242), Lambeth (£25,312), Hackney (£24,715), Ealing (£24,362) and Colchester (£22,806).
Together they accounted for £211,152 – around two-thirds of the £313,043 obtained by Shaikh.
Between 2015 and 2022, Shaikh made 51 successful benefit applications using the names and personal details of nine real people without their knowledge. He also claimed money he was not entitled to under his own name.
He used fake documents including birth certificates, tenancy agreements, benefit letters and bank statements to support the applications, with the money paid into bank accounts he controlled.
Shaikh pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud by false representation at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court earlier this month (17 August 2026) and was sentenced to a further three years in prison.
He was already serving an eight-year prison sentence imposed at Bristol Crown Court in January 2024 after being convicted of stalking a judge online between 2016 and 2021.
The fraud case followed an investigation by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with Shaikh charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Evidence included CCTV footage of Shaikh withdrawing money from accounts into which housing benefit had been paid. Documents submitted in support of the fraudulent applications were also found on his mobile phone and laptop.
When Shaikh was arrested in 2022, £13,500 in cash was found in the backpack he was carrying, along with three bank cards in different names. A safety deposit box held in his name was searched in 2024 and found to contain £200,000 in cash.
Prosecutors said Shaikh reused names and personal details to make applications to different councils at around the same time, meaning the individuals supposedly claiming the benefits could not genuinely have held tenancies in the different areas simultaneously.
Deputy chief crown prosecutor Rose-Marie Franton, from the CPS, said: “Javed Shaikh hijacked the identities of real people so he could cheat taxpayers out of money intended for those who really needed it to pay their rent. His fraud extended to 32 councils over a seven-year period and scammed them out of £313,000.
“Thanks to the hard work of DWP investigators, the applications and money was traced back to Shaikh.”
She said the CPS would now begin confiscation proceedings in an attempt to recover the money Shaikh stole.
