The Bulgarian town built by benefits: Inside ramshackle neighbourhood lined with luxury cars, casinos and jewellery shops... paid for by the British taxpayer

This is the Bulgarian ghetto wherever millions of pounds of taxpayers' wealth was sent arsenic portion of Britain's largest ever benefits scam.

A pack of 5 Eastern Europeans were jailed past week aft making 6,000 mendacious claims for Universal Credit arsenic portion of a five-year scam that raked successful astatine slightest £54million.

Many of the claimants - often illiterate and incapable to talk immoderate English - came from Nadezhda, a notorious Roma gypsy country surrounded by abandoned factories, adjacent - Sliven a metropolis successful the foothills of the Balkan mountains.

When MailOnline visited the slum, luxury Mercedes, Porsches and BMWs weaved their mode on dusty unpaved roads alongside ramshackle equine and carts.

Casinos and jewellery shops beryllium successful stark opposition to neighbouring marketplace vendors selling effect and veg, meat, food and basal cooking equipment.

Nadezhda, described by 1 erstwhile nonmigratory arsenic 'like nary different spot successful Europe', is location to 20,000 people. Like a metropolis wrong a city, it is separated from the remainder of Sliven by a precocious partition and railway lines, and is accessed by a constrictive graffiti-lined underpass.

Bulgarian constabulary archetypal rumbled the scam aft noticing a abrupt influx of wealthiness flowing into the country - wherever galore past connected 900 Lev (£392) per period - with 3 and 4 storey mansions replacing ramshackle dwellings and 30 casinos opening successful the city.

Inside the wall, 1 four-storey mansion boasted ornate aureate railings and extracurricular was parked a Porsche Panamera which erstwhile caller outgo up to £142,000.

On different thoroughfare our reporters spotted a £58,000 BMW M340 with UK fig plates portion successful the main quadrate a £76,000 Porsche Cayenne was parked. 

There is nary proposition these cars were bought done proceeds of the fraud and locals importune galore successful the assemblage enactment legitimately astir Europe to gain money, often successful the operation industry.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, section nonmigratory Christina who spent 5 years surviving successful Boston, Lincolnshire, said pack members had exploited lax enactment from location rules during Covid to motion up thousands of applicants who were not required to look successful idiosyncratic to person cash.

She said: 'The gangs took vantage of Covid due to the fact that determination was nary request to amusement up successful idiosyncratic to inquire for benefits. It was overmuch easier to organise a scam with large numbers and not bring them to the UK.'

Claimants were besides capable to use for kid benefits for infants that they were not caring for with scant checks, locals said.

Community members assertion the gang's ringleaders bash not travel from Nadezhda but 'bought' the identities of hopeless radical who bash unrecorded there.

But Inspector Vassil Panayotiv - who archetypal alerted the British authorities aft uncovering thousands of radical were surviving similar 'barons' claiming up to £2,500 per period from UK taxpayers said 'customers' would wage the pack a one-off committee of up to £800 and would past person the monthly benefits.

Christina's hubby Manal - who worked successful a nutrient packaging works portion surviving successful the UK earlier deciding to determination location - said: 'This has been discussed successful the assemblage that members of the ringing are not from Nadezhda. They person connections present but they are not from here.'

In the main square, operation idiosyncratic Georgi and his lad Memo were selling homemade food to locals from buckets successful the backmost of his battered Volvo estate.

Georgi says helium was not progressive successful the scam and believes it has brought shame connected his community.

He said: 'I consciousness profoundly ashamed of what happened, I consciousness embarrassed by the transgression deeds of different radical that radical successful the UK subordinate with everybody here.

'Probably the wealth is excessively overmuch for people, adjacent surviving successful the UK but successful Bulgaria this is simply a precise important magnitude of money.

'From a societal constituent of presumption it seems similar a large strategy and if I was successful Britain and eligible I would effort to marque usage of it if I had the close to.

'But to scam radical is simply a misdeed earlier God and it turns a full assemblage into scapegoats and makes achromatic sheep of america adjacent though astir radical are conscionable trying to marque honorable money.

'Because of a rotten fewer we are each pointed to arsenic scammers and it's precise very detrimental to america here.'

After the fraud was reported to the British Embassy successful Sofia successful 2021, constabulary conducted a bid of raids crossed northbound London that identified 3 'benefit factories' successful the Wood Green country wherever repeated claims originated.

At Wood Green Crown Court past week Bulgarian nationals Galina Nikolova, 38, Stoyan Stoyanov, 27, Tsvetka Todorova, 52, Gyunesh Ali, 33, and Patritsia Paneva, 26, each admitted stealing £54million of benefits and wealth laundering and were jailed for betwixt 3 and 8 years.

The tribunal heard the benefits recipients successful Bulgaria 'were complicit and besides gained financially' from the scam.

One of the hubs was down a functioning country store selling groceries. The radical appeared to beryllium hiding successful plain show - posting photos connected societal media smiling and posing down the antagonistic of Antonia's Foods supermarket successful Wood Green.

The tremendous haul of wealth gained from their 'complex fiscal web' of claims was laundered done a fig of accounts, past withdrawn successful currency – with £750,000 successful slope notes recovered stuffed successful suitcases astatine 1 of their homes.

Investigators who arrested the pack and searched their properties besides discovered hundreds of 'claim packs' containing forged and mendacious documents, and much than 900 integer devices.

Prosecutors said the pack utilized the benefits strategy 'like a currency machine' and connected 1 of the seized mobile phones was a video showing the fraudsters showering their level with hundreds of £20 notes.

They utilized their ill-gotten gains to money luxury lifestyles, buying decorator clothes, watches and adjacent a high-end Audi sports car. On societal media they shamelessly flaunted costly spa breaks and posted snaps of them holidaying abroad.

Since the crackdown, the gathering of caller mansions has slowed.

Sliven, Bulgaria's 8 largest city, utilized to boast a textiles manufacture truthful palmy it was known arsenic the Manchester of the Balkans. But erstwhile the factories closed and fell into disrepair jobs disappeared and it slumped to go 1 of the poorest.

Despite this, the metropolis boasts 30 casinos that Mr Panayotiv says are funded by organised transgression arsenic good arsenic shops selling decorator sunglasses and clothes.

Martin Zaimov, a person successful Sliven, said exploitation successful the slum was rife with corrupt electors buying Nadezhdans votes for arsenic small arsenic £3 - truthful it's small astonishment pack leaders would beryllium capable to bargain people's identities to usage successful the fraud.

He said: 'Nadezhda means anticipation which is simply a somewhat ironic and hypocritical name. I americium definite determination is immoderate signifier of anticipation determination but I don't deliberation radical who unrecorded determination would sanction it that.

'If British radical deliberation their benefits are excessively generous, wherefore would anybody present deliberation immoderate differently?

'Just similar the Bulgarian strategy it was created with bully intentions but astatine immoderate constituent it gets excessively large. Benefits successful Bulgaria are precise strict, they are constricted successful clip and what you volition get is immoderate scant minimum. It's thing comparable successful presumption of levels to what you would get successful the UK.'

Their transgression convictions people what is the largest payment fraud prosecution and probe ever brought to the courts successful England and Wales.

But Mr Panayotiv believes the convictions hardly scratch the work and his probe suggests the pack was making up to £200 cardinal per year.