Operation Metaphor

A large scale fraud against the Department of Work and Pension's Social Fund whereby fraudulent claims were made using a mixture of false names, hijacked identities, and genuine names.

The fraud was perpetrated by flooding the benefits system with fraudulent claims, most of which were refused but, given the size of the grant involved, a small percentage of claims were granted amounting to an estimated potential value of the fraud is in the region of £200,000. The amount which is said to have been successfully obtained was in the region of £50,000.