Mozambique man jailed for 2 years after raking in £121k in benefit fraud using stolen Portuguese ID
Benefit Cheat Used Family Friend’s ID for Nearly Two Decades
A man from Mozambique has been locked up for two years after he swindled over £121,000 in UK benefits by stealing the identity of a Portuguese man.
Tricamo Farid, 40, arrived illegally in the UK in 2000. He used an ID card belonging to Dercio Quinta, a family friend from Lisbon he met back in 1999.
By pretending to be an EU citizen, Farid secured a National Insurance number in 2001 and claimed state benefits for 17 years — all under Quinta’s name.
The Fraudulent Benefits Windfall
Farid raked in a total of £121,177, including:
- £13,000 in Job Seekers’ Allowance
- £1,000 in Social Fund payments
- £45,000 in Employment Support Allowance
- £12,000 in Personal Independence Payments
- £36,000 in Housing Benefit, across four different properties
- £1,500 in Council Tax Benefit
- £11,500 in Tax Credits
During this time, he even got married and had a child, all under the fake identity.
Police Crack Down and Jail Time
The DWP Fraud and Error Service, Merseyside Police, and Sefton Council launched a probe in 2019. After being caught, Farid admitted the fraud during a police interview.
Officers recovered a sham marriage certificate, his child’s birth certificate, bank card, and numerous papers all in the name of Dercio Quinta.
Farid pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including 15 counts of fraud and related offences.
On 14 May 2020, Liverpool Crown Court sentenced him to two years behind bars.
CPS Warns Benefit Fraudsters: We’re Watching You
“Farid stole the identity of a man he said was a family friend and used it to fraudulently claim thousands of pounds of public money over many years,” said Senior Crown Prosecutor George Ward of CPS Mersey Cheshire’s Fraud Unit.
“The benefits he claimed are urgently needed by many genuine claimants. Cases like these take money from the public purse that is badly needed elsewhere.”
“Farid has been living a lie for more than 18 years … He admitted what he had done once arrested but carried on the deception for so long beforehand. He has now been jailed, and we hope this sends a clear message to benefit fraudsters everywhere.”
