Gypsy rights campaigner's benefits scam

A campaigner for Roma gipsies' rights has been charged with helping scores of Romanians illegally claim millions in benefits.

Lavinia Olmazu, 30, and her boyfriend Alin Enachi, 29, are said to have masterminded a scam by which 172 Romanians claimed £2.6million.

Olmazu, who was arrested last week, was working as an 'inclusivity outreach worker' to Roma gipsies for both Haringey and Waltham Forest councils in North London.

The academic, who has campaigned for greater understanding of gipsy culture, is accused with Enachi of using a supposedly charitable organisation called Roma Concern to help coordinate the fraud.

The couple appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday alongside six gipsies, each of whom is alleged to have pocketed thousands of pounds from the scam.

Under rules introduced when Romania joined the EU in 2006, Romanian migrants cannot get a National Insurance number - which is the key to getting benefits - unless they can prove they have paid employment lined up.

Olmazu and her boyfriend are accused of giving unemployed Romanians false documentation which purported to offer them work. They are also said to have provided false invoices and references purportedly showing they were working.

Scores then used fraudulently obtained NI numbers to claim child benefit, working tax credit and child tax credit, the court heard.

The fraud was allegedly facilitated by Enachi, who attended Benefits Agency interviews with Romanians as a translator.

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Jeweller told to remove 'racially offensive' sign from shop

Jeweller, Michael Plant has been given a police warning for ‘racially offensive’ conduct after placing a sign in his shop window reading 'Sorry, we do not serve Eastern Europeans or Gypsies.’

Mr Plant of Altrincham in Cheshire, who has run the3 shop for the [past 22 years has been told to take the sign down or face prosecution for race hate crime. Mr Plant who has been targeted by foreign thieves, reported to be Romanian travellers, said:

I'm not racist, but the fact is I have been targeted repeatedly by Eastern European criminals and I should have a right to say which people come into my shop and not face allegations of racial discrimination.

I should be able to choose who I serve. That's not just Eastern Europeans - if someone comes in drunk they will not be served either.

All I want is some common sense approach to what we have. The police are reactive rather than proactive to crime, they wait for it to happen before they solve it rather than the other way round.

I think these Romanians and Eastern European criminals are letting their fellow countrymen down. Obviously I don't think all of them are bad, but how can I distinguish who is good and who is bad?

I've got a foreign wife and we have foreign friends. But some people coming in to this country illegally seem to have more rights than me.

He went on to say:

They always say they're Spanish, but they aren't. I speak more Spanish than them!

They use distraction techniques like a child running around, and they get away with your stock. One morning I lost nine bracelets, worth well into four figures.

I think they must pass our name around because about every five to six weeks I get another group of people, two or three to four, sometimes with or without children.

Their English is very poor. They always have gold teeth.
The men always dress very flamboyant with suits, they look as if they are trying to fit in with pointy shoes on, but unfortunately they go over the top and fail.

They come in and ask for something and we usually haven't got it. Last Saturday we got a visit from another 'disadvantaged' pair from a 'disadvantaged' group and the result was that we lost some jewellery to them.

I've reported incidents to the police in the past. I've had several robberies over the years and the capture of criminals is very low.

I'm sick and tired of a country where if I put a sign on the door, I'm told I'm in flagrant disregard of the discrimination act, which would result in me going to high court being given a fine and a slap on the wrist and end up with a criminal record.

I bet if these people are caught for stealing, they probably wouldn't even go into a magistrates court. They would just get a fixed penalty fine and that would be paid by one of the human rights organisations. The tax-payer pays for it all.

I've spoken to various people, including foreign friends of mine, and they seem to agree that the whole country is belly-up.

They're quicker than Paul Daniels. It's a couple of hundred pounds (each time) and that's under my insurance excess.

Police said the Mr Plant had fallen foul of the Race Relations Act which recognises gypsies and travellers as ethnic groups.

Well, Mr Plant, your words speak for us all. Stick to your guns and keep that sign flying high!

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