A foreign gang of fraudsters headed by a mother-of-two who netted £680,000 worth of tax credits have been jailed for a total of 11 years.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that had the scam by the three Slovakians not been detected and intercepted, the fraudulent claims for working and child tax credits and child care allowance would have paid out more than £1million.

Darina Balogova, 31, and her husband Marek Balog, 34, of Beacon Road, Chatham, together with his brother Jaroslav Bado, 32, conspired together over five years until they were arrested in July last year.

Jailing Balogova for four-and-a-half years, Judge Michael Carroll said he regarded her as “the brains behind the enterprise” and questioned whether she came to the UK solely for the purpose of carrying out the fraud.

She had denied conspiracy to commit tax credit fraud between August 2005 and July last year, and two offences of money laundering, but was convicted by the jury after a three-week trial.

Her husband denied the same charges but was also found guilty and jailed for three-and-a-half years. Bado, of Upper Luton Road, Chatham, was convicted of the same conspiracy charge and one offence of money laundering. He was jailed for three years.

Judge Carroll said the evidence was “overwhelming” and the sentences had to reflect society’s abhorrence of people fraudulently claiming public funds.

“This was an extremely large benefit fraud,” he remarked. “It became obvious throughout this trial that the evidence was overwhelming and extremely incriminating.

“It was the blatant nature of this fraud that probably is the most outstanding aspect of it.”

Prosecutor Dominic Connolly told the court a large number of Slovakian families were brought over to the UK for the purpose of setting up the bogus tax credit claims.

Their passports and birth certificates were used to obtain national insurance numbers. Postal addresses were arranged and fake employment records created, with many of the claimants purporting to be working for the same company.

The Slovakian families then simply returned to their native country using identity cards instead of their passports, while the three defendants maintained the claims.

Six members of the jury that convicted the gang returned to court for the sentencing hearing. Confiscation proceedings will be held in June next year.