A CAMPAIGNER for gypsies' rights has admitted her part in a £3 million benefits scam involving nearly 200 Romanians.
Lavinia Olmazu, of Woodford Bridge, and her boyfriend Alin Enachi, 29, masterminded the scam which saw 172 Romanians claim a total of £2.9 million.
Olmazu, 30, was working as an 'inclusivity outreach worker' with Roma gypsies for both Waltham Forest and Haringey councils.
Enachi, a part-time interpreter from Romania, helped immigrants - mainly from Romania - get National Insurance numbers with bogus documents, such as bank statements and letters of recommendation, which claimed they were working.
Olmazu, an educational therapist with two degrees, has a 10-year-old son and has dedicated her life to studying Roma gypsies.
She also addressed the United Nations in New York on the issue.
Today at Southwark Crown Court, she admitted conspiracy to supply articles to defraud.
Enachi admitted the same charge at an earlier hearing and was sentenced to two years and eight months on July 16.
The couple, of Owen Gardens, are said to have "facilitated the obtaining" of National Insurance numbers under the umbrella of a charity called Roma Concern.
Enachi acted as an interpreter for 356 National Insurance applicants between March 2008 and July 2009, with 172 of the applicants going on to make claims for tax credit, child tax credits and child benefits.
Under rules introduced when Romania joined the EU in 2006, Romanian migrants cannot get a National Insurance number - which is the key to obtaining benefits - unless they can prove they have paid employment lined up.
Arrests were first made in August after the Department of Work and Pensions investigated an "unusually high" volume of applications for National Insurance numbers by Roma applicants at a south London Jobcentre.
Enachi had acted as an interpreter on the majority of the applications, the court heard.
Analysis of computer files at his home showed templates for bank documents and letters of recommendation that were linked to a number of "fraudulent" applications.
Six other jobless Roma gipsies were also arrested over the scam.
After Anachi was arrested, searches of his home uncovered a number of memory sticks and laptops that were examined.
Matthew McCabe, prosecuting, said: "Templates were found on the computer which had been used and could be linked to a number of fraudulent applications."
Olmazu, who will be sentenced in September, was later arrested after she was linked to the conspiracy by way of fraudulent invoices used in the National Insurance applications, he added.
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