FIVE people have gone on trial accused of committing more than £100,000 of benefit fraud by using a “multiplicity” of aliases to hide the fact they are related.

Three homes in Barnet were used by the group, including a brother and his two sisters, in what prosecutors described as a “systematic, well-planned and organised attack on the benefits system.”

Ricardo, Bianca and Cosima Guthrie are accused of six counts of conspiracy to defraud and one of transfering the proceeds of crime, alongside family friend Vanessa Williams and Bianca's ex-boyfriend Courtney Campbell.

Properties involved in the fraud, thought to total more than £112,000, are in Mays Lane and Golda Close, Barnet and Willow House in East Finchley, with others in Perivale and Chingford.

This morning a jury at Wood Green Crown Court heard how the mother of the siblings, Pauline Guthrie, had used aliases to buy a number of houses across London in the late 80s under the right to buy scheme.

Prosecutor Kevin Dent said the only reason Pauline, also known as Celine Joiner-Walker, was not on trial is she could not be found.

He told the court the family used many aliases in a bid to hide their relationship from the authorities and claim housing and council tax benefits for homes each other owned.

He said the ownership was “rotated” between family members who used the benefit cash as a “ready supply” to cover mortgage payments, while renting properties out to other non-related tenants.

He said: “In this case we can see this fraud was part and parcel of different family members seeking to establish a property portfolio through elicit means.

“It seems the establishing of the aliases and fraudulent benefit claims was closely associated to the various properties and in particular linked to properties of Ricardo Guthrie.

“In doing so it seems to have adopted some tried and tested methods adopted by his mother Celine Joiner-Walker.”

Officers discovered Ricardo's picture on driving licenses in three different names with different driver numbers, which could only have been obtained by taking three separate driving tests.

He added: “The mother has passed onto her offspring knowledge of how to create identities in the same way some mothers would pass on tried and tested recipes.”

He described some aliases were shared between Celine, Bianca and Cosima “in the same way you would share an old family car”.

He added: “One of the main things you will see in the course of this trial is the creation of different identities by family members.

“It is a prolific and systematic and close knit family working together using common methods in what must have been a closely bound family unit.

“It's impossible to avoid the conclusion, we say, that the family members we are considering here have almost something of a passion for creating new identities, almost like a family hobby.”

The trial is expected to last for three weeks.