Benefits fraudster who built south London property portfolio off £1m in illegitimate claims jailed

An elderly South London benefits fraudster who cheated taxpayers out of £1 million after falsely claiming to be paralysed for almost two decades has been jailed for 11 years.

Emmanuel Bay, 68, claimed he needed the cash to pay for round the clock care but splurged the cash on building up a property portfolio worth over £1 million with his wife Nancy Bay Sloane, also 68. 

The Brixton couple was convicted in March this year after suspicions raised by adult social care officers during a routine review of his claim unearthed almost 20 years of benefits fraud.

Judge Michael Wood KC branded Mr Bay the "most dishonest man" he had ever come across while sentencing him last Friday (May 26) and condemned him for his "utterly despicable" behaviour.

Mrs Bay Sloane, whom the judge described as a "Jekyll and Hyde" character was sentenced to four and a half years behind bars. 

Mr Bay told Lambeth Council he had become bed-bound following a car accident in 1997 where he had suffered a serious head injury, which had also caused memory loss. 

He was paid almost half a million in direct payments by the council between 1999 and 2016. The handouts are intended to allow people to arrange their own care.

Over the same period Mr Bay received around £300,000 from the government's independent living fund, money which is meant to help disabled people manage their condition. 

He also falsely claimed £90,482 in disability living allowance, £70,017 in incapacity benefit and £12,568 in living cost support from the Department for Work and Pensions. 

Mr Bay received a further £10,611 in Universal Credit between 2018 and 2019, on top of £700 support from Lambeth Council for housing costs.

Meanwhile the couple were building up a five-strong property portfolio across South London, including four-bed 90 Sudbourne Road in Brixton which Mr Bay bought for £289,000 in 2001. On the mortgage application, Mr Bay said he was a self-employed IT consultant with an annual income of over £100,000.

Mrs Bay Sloane falsely claimed she had been renting council property, 74 Arlington Lodge in Brixton, since 1985 to get a right to buy discount of £38,000 on the flat when she bought it in 2001 for just £37,000. The couple kept a room in the two-bed property for Bay to use when he was visited by council employees carrying out checks. 

Officials became suspicious Emmanuel Bay was lying about his condition during a series of visits to the Arlington Lodge property in 2015. During one visit his supposed carer, Bruno Matudi, 60, used a bear hug to lift Bay when he was asked to show how he would carry him around. On another occasion a visiting occupational therapist realised the lift wasn't wide enough to fit a wheelchair, despite Bay claiming he used it to reach the second-floor flat. 

Mr Matudi, who met Mr Bay while studying together at the Open University, was handed two suspended sentences totalling 24 months and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work. Judge Mr Wood KC said Bay was the "worst possible role model" Mr Matudi could have come across. 

The three defendants were previously found guilty of offences under the Theft Act, Fraud Act and Forgery and Counterfeiting Act at Inner London Crown Court on March 6.

Sentencing Emmanuel Bay at Inner London Crown Court on May 26, Mr Wood KC said: "You had no insight at all into your offending. You showed not a shadow of remorse. You are an inveterate liar and I have quite honestly not a clue who you really are. I don't accept that you are Mr Emmanuel Bay Sloane."

Mr Wood KC added: "In general terms all three of you were convicted on the most overwhelming evidence of extraordinarily mean and dishonest offences, plundering whatever you could from the state to your own advantage."

Mr Wood KC went on to praise the Lambeth Council team who uncovered the fraud. Mr Bay and Mrs Bay Sloane have been served with deportation orders.