Romanian 'Con Air' gang will only repay fifth of stolen benefits cash In the "sophisticated and professional" fraud, the group, who come the Romanian town of Tandare, used forged Home Office documents and job references to illegally obtain national insurance numbers which they used to claim state handouts. At the final confiscation hearings at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, gang leader Telus Dumitru, 38, was ordered to pay back just over £70,000. Prosecutor Christopher Hehir described him as "very much at the centre of the fraud." He added: "Although his quantifiable benefit was not a large one, that did not necessarily reflect the pivotal role he played in the fraud. As far as realisable assets are concerned the figure the prosecution and the defence agree is a sum of £70,452.64. The great majority of that figure is in the form of hidden or unidentifiable assets. He was also ordered to pay the DWP compensation of just over £35,000 - but the court heard that would come out of the £70,000 as no other assets could be traced. At the same hearing, Marian Gheorghe, 36, was asked to re-pay just £10,000 despite using a number of false documents to rip off Birmingham Council and the department work and pensions from thousands of benefits, were the final gang members to face confiscation hearings. The court heard he owns a large house in Romania, but due to a "significant drop in property prices" he was asked to pay back just £10,000. The entire sum will be paid to the DWP as compensation. Other members of the gang have been also been ordered to repay only small sums - with the total amount paid back to the taxpayer reaching just £136, 989.25, vastly short of the £800,000 pocketed by the gang. In February, Dumitru's wife Ramona, who claimed she had six children aged between two and 13 years old, was ordered to pay back just £16.65p of the £81,106.33p she received. Her sister Dorina, after a court heard she had no assets, was told to hand back only £1 despite having netted £101,333.27. Ion Stoica was also ordered to pay just £27,125.74 or face 12 months behind bars. He was also ordered to pay £3,449.39 compensation. And Claudia Radu was ordered to pay £29,393.22 with compensation of just over £7,000. Jailing the gang in May last year, Judge Gregory Stone QC said the fraud was professionally planned and committed over a significant period. He said: "This was a major undermining of the UK benefits system. It was a professional fraud that occurred over a significant time frame and resulted in a very serious loss to the UK authorities. Dumitru, who was identified as the ringleader of the gang, was jailed for four years and eight months in May 2011. Eight others also received prison sentences. His wife Romana, a mother of six, was sentenced to one year and eight months. Gheorghe was sentenced to two years and four months. Radu, who was stopped at Stansted airport with 13,000 euros and £1,800 cash stashed in her bag along with a money order for more than 20,000 euros, was sentenced to six months in jail. Her brother-in-law Adrian Radu ripped off £20,000 from the tax system. He was sentenced to one year. Dorina Dumitru swindled more than £101,000 in benefits and also falsely claimed asylum in the UK in 2000 after supplying the home office with fake documents. He received two years prison. Stoica, who pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud, was sentenced to six months. Construction boss Abdel Lemsatef was jailed for nine months after he admitted supplying Dumitru with the forged job references the gang needed to get their hands on national insurance numbers.