good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. five bulgarian nationals have been sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison after being convicted of the biggest benefit fraud ever in britain. the gang stole almost £54 million by making thousands of fraudulent claims for universal credit. the judge said they d systemically plundered the state s support mechanism to steal eye watering sums. our social affairs correspondent michael buchanan reports. taxpayers money thrown around like confetti by a multi million pound fraudster. the scale of the scam astonished investigators. now the gang behind it have been sentenced. the full story of britain s biggest benefit fraud can be told. prosecutors say thousands of people were flown from bulgaria to london, that ids were then used to make claims for the main benefit universal credit. police officers. when the fraudsters various premises were raided, investigators found an extraordinary amount of evidence. 900 mobile phones
sunshine and showers today, but generally fewer and lighter showers. for the next few days, it will be a drying trend, as this area of high pressure gets closer to the uk, but between that and the high in the north sea, we have a northerly breeze, which has pushed this cloud southwards. it brought a lot of thunderstorms across scotland yesterday, but it is focusing mainly showers today across parts of south east england. cloud coming in off the north sea brings a little rain towards parts of east yorkshire, lincolnshire and norfolk, bringing back the temperatures a little bit, so 14 15 here. elsewhere, probably 17 19 with some sunshine and some showers. 0ne elsewhere, probably 17 19 with some sunshine and some showers. one or two thunderstorms in the south of england, a drier day in scotland. though showers tend to fend fade later, then we have another batch of light rain to some parts of east england during the night. elsewhere, a few short lived mist and fog patches. a c