Health tourists staying in 'benefit fraud hotels'

Benefit cheats are illegally sub-letting their flats in a Paddington mansion block for as much as £400 a week to Kuwaitis visiting London for medical treatment.

Nearly 140 of the 600 flats at Park West, off Edgware Road, could be involved in the racket and two housing benefit claimants have been arrested.

Westminster City Council plans to send them a court summons, while 15 people have had their benefit claims stopped and another 15 have had them suspended pending an investigation.

Cabinet member for finance, Colin Barrow, said: "It's sad that vulnerable people paying for treatment in the UK appear to be blindly checking into benefit fraud hotels.

"A significant number of those we found living in properties registered to other individuals are Kuwaiti.

"They are staying a couple of weeks to several months getting treatment for a range of disorders before flying home."

Westminster believes many of those sub-letting their flats are still collecting housing benefit from the council while living with spouses they have said they had split up from.

Police and council workers raided 17 of the suspect apartments three times in August and September. They found 11 were occupied by Kuwaitis and eight of those said they were visiting London for medical treatment.

One resident of the block, who did not want to be named, said the flat next door to his had been raided.

He said: "The guy had been subletting it for around five years. Flats around here go for about £350 to £400 a week so it's a lot of money. If someone was committing a fraud on that scale they should end up in prison.

"I've heard people cry domestic violence so their wives get re-housed as a priority then the husband moves in with them in the new place and they sub-let the old flat. The people who are staying there have no idea what is going on."

Another resident, who refused to be named, said: "My block has eight floors and people are always coming and going so you can't really keep track of people. These flats are almost 100 per cent Arab so no one is going to notice a couple of people from Kuwait moving in for a few weeks."

The high number of Kuwaiti health tourists could be down to information about the apartments spreading by word of mouth. The rent is paid by the Kuwaiti government.

The two arrested were found in their "former" spouses' homes.

Mr Barrow said: "As soon as Westminster discovered this we launched Operation Submarine jointly with the police. About £100,000 is at stake, made up of overpaid claims which now need to be reclaimed in court and payments which were stopped short when fraud was detected.

"We have successfully recouped £123,000 of falsely claimed benefits so far this financial year for the taxpayer."