Council worker jailed for adult care services fraud and money laundering scam

Ceyda Elkatme, 35, of Waltham Forest – a contracted finance officer who worked for Haringey Council – was sentenced alongside her seven accomplices at Southwark Crown Court for their involvement in the scam in which Elkatme made fraudulent payments to the other seven in bogus payments for adult care services that were never delivered.

Elkatme made payments to her accomplices’ bank accounts, which totalled more than £466,000. They then paid the money back into Elkatme’s or her husband’s account, whilst taking a cut for themselves.

The fraud, which took place between June 2010 and October 2012, saw Elkatme, who was based in Haringey Council’s Adult Services Payments Team, make 66 fraudulent payments to her seven accomplices.

An internal audit and investigation by Haringey Council revealed the suspect payments, which were reported to police by the council in December 2012. Detectives made further enquiries into the payments and transactions and officers arrested Elkatme, who by that time was no longer working for the council, along with six others on 10 July, 2013. A further arrest was made on 2 August.

Elkatme was charged with fraud by false representation and her co-defendants were all charged with money laundering on 10 and 11 June 2014.

Haringey Borough Superintendent Amanda Dellar said: “This was a despicable crime where Elkatme abused her position as a finance officer to defraud Haringey Council out of well over £450,000 of what was effectively public money. Working with her husband and accomplices, they set out to launder hundreds of thousands of pounds between them – money which should have been paid to people providing essential care services for vulnerable adults in the borough.

“Elkatme will now be spending a considerable time in prison, but our investigation will not stop here. Our financial investigators will be making further enquiries with a view to applying for a confiscation order to recover as much of the stolen money as possible.”

• Two women, Tijen Kacakoglu, 35 (12.06.1980) of Kimberley Road, Edmonton, received 12 months’ imprisonment; and Ajda Saykin-Bezci, 36 (06.10.1979) of Dunheved Road South, Thornton Heath, received 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years;
• Two men, Nicos Kolas, 34 (09.11.1981) of Albany Park Avenue, Enfield, received eight months’ suspended for two years, and Jihad Elkatme, 34 (04.01.1981) of Sterling Avenue, Waltham Cross (Ceyda’s husband), who had also pleaded guilty on the same date to money laundering by entering in an arrangement contrary to Section 328 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment.
• Three men were all found guilty of money laundering on 10 August following a five-day trial at Southwark Crown Court. Iqbal Bablu, 27 (21.01.1988) of Landseer Road, Enfield, and Mazar Khan, 35, (05.07.1980) previously of Millicent Grove, Palmers Green, received 12 months suspended for two years; and Abid Fostok, aged 33 (13.06.1982), of Streamside Close, Edmonton, received 10 months’ imprisonment.
• During the trial in August, Fadumo Ali, 48 (01.06.1967) of Chauncey Close, Edmonton was found not guilty of acquiring criminal property contrary to section 329 of POCA.

In the course of their investigation officers found an irregular payment made to Ali, a genuine contractor with Haringey Council. As the overpayment had not been reported to the council, officers arrested Ali on 4 September 2013 and she was subsequently charged with acquiring criminal property on 11 June, 2014 but was found not guilty.

Picture (c) The Metropolitan Police.