AN illegal immigrant and his girlfriend were both jailed after amassing a £4 million property empire, following a benefit scam which lasted ten years.

Nigerian Saheed Ladega, 38, who had already been deported once, teamed up with Oluwatosin Gbadebo, the mother of his five young children, to subject local authorities to nearly a decade of deceit.

The couple used 26 false names to claim nearly £170,000 in housing and council tax benefits from Waltham Forest and Newham Councils.

A large slice of the cash was used as deposits for 11 properties in Leytonstone and West Ham bought with mortgages in false names, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Meanwhile, they lived in a five-bedroomed detached pro-perty in Warren Lane, Chafford Hundred, which was lavishly furnished, while driving a top-of-the range Mercedes.

Rent collected from their other homes, many let to illegal immigrants, meant the family wanted for nothing.

Ladega and Gbadebo, 35, were convicted of 54 offences of furnishing false information, obtaining money transfers by deception, and converting criminal property between 1997 and 2006.

Judge Paul Dodgson said having been deported once from this country, after trying to beat immigration laws with a marriage of convenience, the Nigerian national lost little time sneaking back into the UK with the help of a fake British passport.

He said: "You abused the welfare system of this country, which you weren't even entitled to be in, to fund a property empire. It was quite breathtaking dishonesty, systematic exploitation of the welfare system."

The judge said the sums of benefit he obtained were so great, Ladega repaid a £57,000 lump sum off his mortgage.

He said: "I am sure there are millions who would love to be able to do that. You did it by benefit fraud."

He sentenced Ladega to five years in prison and ordered him to be deported straight after release.

Turning to a weeping Gbadebo, the judge said he had thought "very carefully and anxiously" before deciding he could not suspend her sentence and jailed her for 18 months. He said: "It weighs very heavily with me that five children will suffer from the fact that you will go to prison.

"I accept you did not play a major part. But by pretending to be a single parent you and your children lived a life you were not entitled to.

"There comes a point where you have to say if a parent behaves in such a way, as you did, you and indeed your children have to pay the price for it."