A Nigerian, Kayode Sanni, 38, has been jailed five years and three months for his part in the elaborate scam to con UK taxpayers out of millions of pounds.
Sanni, described as an illegal immigrant, was accused of heading a gang, which used the identities of MPs, judges and police officers to perpetrate the fraud.
Three other Nigerians, Emmanuel Odeyemi, Chantelle Gumbs and Adedamole Oyebode, who admitted their roles in the scam, were also handed various sentences.
Odeyemi was jailed for three and a half years, Gumbs was handed a 15-month sentence suspended for two years, and Oyebode received a two-year sentence suspended for two years.
The gang reportedly stole personal details from the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC), which provides sport and fitness facilities to more than 120,000 public sector employees and pensioners.
Member lists were “stolen to order” from CSSC and used to place orders for tax credit starter packs used in fraudulent claims over a four year period.
CSSC events manager Adedamola Oyebode, 30, stole membership lists and passed them on to her brothers-in-law Oluwatobe Emmanuel Odeyemi, 34, and Oluwagbenga Stephen Odeyemi, 39, who ran the fraud with Kayode Sanni, 38.
The gang managed to get away with £2,500,000 before staff at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs spotted the “extraordinarily high rate” of claims being made by civil servants.
If the scam had not been stopped it could have reaped more than £10,260,525, the court heard.
Sanni, who told jurors “my conscience is clear” after denying involvement in the scam wa convicted after standing trial for one count of conspiracy to become knowingly concerned in a fraudulent act between March 10, 2009 and June 11, 2013.
Sentencing, Judge Paul Dodgson said: “This is a serious fraud you all involved yourself in. There is no doubt that much of the money has been sent to Nigeria.”
The judge told an earlier hearing: “This was a list of members of the Civil Service Sports Council and their personal details.
“Having obtained those personal details, they were then dressed up, as it were, with addresses that were controlled by one or more of the defendants.
“Having done that, a claim was then made, and that was by telephone calls being made for a pack to be sent that would enable claims to be made.
“Claims were then made in those genuine names with false details.
“When the monies were eventually released, they went into bank accounts that had been created specifically to receive these fraudulent proceeds.”
Sanni had expressed his remorse for the scam in a letter following his conviction.
But Judge Dodgson rejected his expressions of remorse, noting: “He lied through his teeth. I think he is remorseful that he got caught. I’m sorry, I just can’t regard that as sincere.
“I can’t see how someone who contested the matter, who in the jury’s judgement, and in mine as well, just blatantly lied throughout and then claimed to be remorseful.”
The convicts 