LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic online) - Not only that, but the female ringleader of this family falsely claimed to suffer from HIV, requiring costly drugs. She would then turn around and sell these drugs back in Uganda for a healthy profit. Supplying the drugs for so many years cost the British taxpayer more than £2 million.

A further £154,000 went on education for the "family," with £37,500 for a single higher education course.

Altogether, fraud relating to accommodation costs and sub-letting of flats cost £650,000, and the family's myriad benefits totaled £900,000.

Undergoing a six-week trial, a jury heard how the family "conspired together to create, use and exploit" false identities in order to carry out the staggering fraud.

"The trouble is, they had so many identities that it may never be known exactly how much they took out of the benefits system and this country over such a long period of time," one court official claimed.

"The tentacles of this fraud went far and wide for many, many years. Each defendant at different times joined the conspiracy," Prosecutor Paul Readmits said.

The "key player" 49-year-old Ruth Nabulus "employed multiple identities ... so many that the true number of identities may never ever be known.

Nabulus, from Uganda, made claims for HIV/AIDS drugs costing £2,280,000. She also received £500,000 in housing benefit from Newham Council in east London, Croydon Crown Court heard.

Nabuguzi came to the UK in 1991 and claimed asylum for herself and four children she said she left behind in Uganda.

Using the name Jane Namusisi three years later, she applied for asylum again, along with two more children. Using the assumed name Pauline Zalwango in 1999, she applied once more, this time with three children.

She is believed to have regularly travelled back to Uganda and bought at least three properties in and around the capital of Kampala.

Nabuguzi's son assumed son, 29-year-old Dennis Kyeyune, 29, is thought to be at least her nephew. Police found a black hold-all at his east London home hidden on a shed roof with a vast array of fake documents, described as a "kitbag for the commission of identity fraud."

Other members of the gang include 26-year-old Jordan Sebutemba, thought to be Nabuguzi's daughter or niece; Albert Kaidi, a former partner of Sebutemba who is believed to be from Rwanda; and 36-year-old Lamulah Sekiziyuvu, a former partner of both Keyuyne and Kaidi.

Kyeyune, Sebutemba, Kaidi and Sekiziyuvu were found guilty of various fraud offences.
"This case shows how criminals determined to cheat the benefits system have nowhere to hide when the different branches of the Government come together," Mark Simpson, an investigator for the Department for Work and Pensions, said.

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