Tsvetka Todorova, 54, a key figure in one of Britain’s largest benefits scams, has repaid only £18,228.14 of the £101,201.78 she was ordered to hand over, leaving £83,000 outstanding. The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed the figure to Metro, with enforcement of the debt ongoing.
Court order and missed deadline
Todorova was jailed for three years in May 2024 after making £263,514 from the fraud plot. She was released in late 2025, and in January a court ordered her to pay £101,201.78. She missed the July deadline to pay the sum in full – a deadline that had already been extended – and interest is now accruing on the unpaid amount.
The Bulgarian national has not been taken into custody over the missed payment. She faces deportation and could be sent back to jail for failing to meet the confiscation order.
How the £54m fraud worked
Todorova and four other Bulgarian nationals used false identities to lodge benefits claims from October 2016 to 2021. The group – Todorova, Galina Nikolova, Stoyan Stoyanov, Gyunesh Ali, and Patritsia Paneva, 26 – used forged documents to deceive the Department for Work and Pensions. When officials rejected their counterfeit claims, the group’s ‘benefits factories’ kept re-applying until they were approved.
Members of the gang used the proceeds to buy a luxury car and designer goods such as Rolex watches before their arrest in May 2021. The ring was uncovered after a police officer in Sliven, Bulgaria, tipped off British authorities. All six pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering and were jailed in April 2024. Prosecutors called it the ‘largest benefit fraud prosecution ever brought to the courts in England and Wales’.
Living on Universal Credit
Todorova was released early and returned to London, where she lives with her husband, who is on Universal Credit – a benefit for people on low incomes or out of work. She told the Daily Mail in January: ‘I love it here; it is good and has helped me. I’ve been back on benefits since December 30.’
She added: ‘It’ll be about £200 a month. I don’t have a right to work. My husband gets over £1,000 for Universal Credit.’ Todorova said her husband suffers from depression and back pain, and that she has high blood pressure because of the case. The DWP has been approached for comment; it previously said it is ‘taking rigorous action to recover the stolen funds’.
