An illegal immigrant who falsely claimed to be a tortured Afghani refugee with a severe disability and fraudulently claimed almost £400,000 in benefits has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Mohamed Bouzalim, 37, a Moroccan national, has admitted to dishonestly entering the country and exploiting the welfare system.
Sentencing him at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Simon Oliver said Bouzalim has committed fraud on "a grand scale" over nine years and was unscrupulous and manipulative. Mr Oliver said he rejected Bouzalim's claim he had been tortured and had a mental illness.
He added: "He is a man who has planned professionally this fraud. I anticipate he planned it the day before he arrived in this country."
Mr Oliver said Bouzalim claimed to be an Afghani refugee whose father was killed by the Taliban and he was tortured, to gain the sympathies of immigration authorities, and that this lie started "the spiral of deceit".
"He is a man in my mind who is completely unscrupulous. He is a man who used his family to benefit him," he said.
Directly addressing Bouzalim, of Kilburn, north London, who stood in the dock leaning on crutches, Mr Oliver added: "I believe the crutch I see before me is to persuade me of your illness and I don't accept it."
Crown Prosecutor Lyall Thompson had told the court Bouzalim had sat in his bed shaking and pretending to be unable to walk when a social services worker from Camden Council visited, but soon after the assessor left, police witnessed him walking out of the house.
Mr Thompson said a video of Bouzalim dancing at his wedding and the fact he passed a driving test in an unadapted car was proof his disability was a hoax. He said Bouzalim also duped three UK universities into believing he was a Belgian national so he was eligible for discounted fees given to European Union citizens.
Bouzalim's siblings, Rachid, 35, Abdallah, 39, and Zahra, 41, were given 12-month suspended sentences for assisting him.
