A businessman who faked the birth of 26 non-existent babies using phony birth certificates for fictitious home births as part of a massive, organised benefit scam has been ordered to pay back just £1 of the stolen cash.
Rory McWhirter, director of property firm Capital Residential Ltd, concocted the complicated scheme while living with his paediatric doctor girlfriend in Dundee, who had charges against her dropped.
He duped people into applying for fake jobs at a Glasgow hotel through an ad on Gumtree – then used their identity details and those of other couples to get copies of their marriage certificates.
He then used those and forged letters claiming the children had been born in home births before using them to register the non-existent children.
McWhirter, 29, then used the birth certificates for non-existent children to claim for tax credits, child benefit and maternity grants – raking in a total of £34,381.18.
McWhirter was jailed for 28 months for the “sophisticated fraud” – and prosecutors lodged a Proceeds of Crime Act action in a bid to recoup the cash.
Dundee Sheriff Court earlier heard McWhirter earned £80,000 a year – but on Wednesday it heard he has no assets of his own and that even his home is in girlfriend Kiyo Adya’s name, meaning he had no way of paying back the money.
Depute fiscal Joanne Smith told the court an agreement had been reached with defence lawyers for an order to be made for just £1.
However, the existence of the order means McWhirter will be liable in the future for the full £38,381.18 that he stole if he returns to work after his release from prison.
Sheriff George Way said: “This is quite a complicated fraud.
“He is saying in his answers that the only asset is the family home that is in his partner’s name.
“I will make a confiscation order in the sum of £1.”
McWhirter’s scheme was only rumbled after he returned to the scene of one of his early false birth registrations at Aberdeen registry office where he was recognised by staff.
Around the same time, an “organised attack” on HMRC’s computer systems – which showed around 350 requests had been received for tax credits application forms from an address in Dundee and others in Campbelltown linked to McWhirter – triggered other alarms.
In the end it was McWhirter’s BMW Z4 convertible car that he used to travel to the registrar offices across Scotland that led police to his door.
