I worked in the benefits system for years and we had a particular woman who got weekly giros for HUGE amounts (tax credits). She would cash these giros but then repeatedly call us to report that she hadn’t received them and we would have to reissue them. The fraud department were well aware and were building a case so although we all knew what she was doing we would have to follow procedure and send her “replacement” giros for the ones she was reporting not received knowing very well she’d cashed them. It went on for over a year before they finally had all the evidence they needed to take her to court and a fair few of us staff from various offices around the country had to travel to her area’s magistrates court to give evidence. She plead not guilty and the case was prepared to go to crown court at great tax payer expense then the case was due she changed her plea to guilty.I was in the Overpayments finance department so had to recover funds after fraud court cases - it was in the late 80s before anything digital so they would have to actually cash in their giro & bring in the pennies - literally about £2 a week
This was HMRC and there was so much minutiae of legalisation etc that had to be followed to bring this woman successfully to court for a fraud of “just” tens of thoudanss of pounds. And unfortunately the wheels turn slowly on top of that. I later worked for tax credit compliance for many years and it was excruciating and infuriating how slowly things moved despite overwhelming evidence of fraud.
Sometimes you just have to let the law take its course and make sure every single procedure is followed to the absolute letter of the law no matter how frustrating it may be to ensure the outcome you want.
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I want a big, dramatic, full on kick off at the airport arrest in front of all the waiting paps and baby JJ.