Four members of the same family have been convicted of taking part in a £2.7 million conspiracy to defraud the government’s furlough scheme during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
A jury found all four guilty of their part in their scam which involved sending about half the money home to Romania.
At Hove Crown Court, two other members of the family were acquitted of criminal involvement in the scam at the end of an eight-week trial.
Judge Christine Henson told the four who were convicted – two brothers and their partners – that they would be sentenced in November.
The case was brought to court after an HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation known as Operation Bolster23.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: “Operation Bolster23 is a criminal investigation led by HMRC into suspected fraudulent Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) claims by six family members.”
All six were Romanians who were living in Britain, mainly in Eastbourne. They submitted claims for furlough pay for 89 individuals including themselves.
The claims were made through five suspect companies, at least some of which were legitimate business that provided staff to care homes during the pandemic.
The CPS said that the claims totalled about £2.7 million and started almost as soon as the furlough scheme began, running for the whole time that the scheme was in operation.
The CPS added: “The money was transferred into personal bank accounts held by the nominals and then ultimately transferred out of the UK jurisdiction to Romania.”
The family’s scam “exploited the scheme – and real workers – to claim furlough payments, pocketing the sums received for themselves”, Janet Weeks, prosecuting, told Hove Crown Court.
Miss Weeks said: “This was a direct steal of all of our money – taxpayers’ money – intended to keep people going and to keep companies going during a national emergency.”
The family ran five companies, with most of the fraudulent funds claimed and funnelled through two of them, recruitment agencies known as Green Cross Recruitment Ltd and Green Cross Recruitment South.
The agencies, based in the Eastbourne area, supplied permanent and temporary nurses and carers to organisations across coastal East Sussex from Brighton to the Hastings area.
Genuine clients included Swanborough House, in Brighton, the jury was told. But those running the care home “had no knowledge” of any claims made in the name of workers supplied to the home.
Miss Weeks said: “Swanborough House did not furlough any workers.”
She told the jury: “The claims made by all five companies were all submitted in the names of genuine individuals.
“They actually worked at some time or another for the companies or had been former employees who, in the main, actually worked for the recruitment companies or had been former employees.
“Care workers generally worked during the pandemic. The care industry was one of the sectors that largely had to provide services throughout the national lockdowns.
“All of those traced in respect of all five of the companies had no idea their identities were being used by the same recruitment agencies to massively defraud and exploit the furlough scheme.”
Miss Weeks said that the care workers in question had never received any furlough pay from any of the five companies – or any other company. Many worked throughout the pandemic, often in highly pressured and very difficult conditions.
Those who were legitimately furloughed were paid 80 per cent of their salaries, with their employers claiming the money from the government.
The four people who were convicted are Laurentiu Dogaru, 41, and his 36-year-old ex-wife Mariana Dogaru, also known as Bianca, of Ramsay Way, Eastbourne, Laurentiu Dogaru’s brother Cristian Dogaru, 36, and his partner Gabriela-Iulia Ciorobea, 35, of Pevensey Road, Eastbourne.
The Dogaru brothers’ mother, Niculina Neagu, 62, and Mariana Dogaru’s mother, Aurica Botosaru, 58, were acquitted.
All six denied the charges – eight counts in total – which all related to fraud and money laundering over about 18 months in 2021 and 2022.
Their trial started on Monday 13 July and ended on Thursday (3 September).
Laurentiu Dogaru, Mariana Dogaru, Cristian Dogaru and Gabriela-Iulia Ciorobea have all been remanded into custody to await sentence on Monday 9 November.
