High-tech data-tracking techniques are to be deployed in a new drive to clamp down on benefit and tax credit fraud costing the taxpayer £1.5 billion a year.
Some 200 additional inspectors are to be recruited to a new investigation service, which will see a mobile taskforce sent to high-fraud areas to check every single claim, said welfare reform minister Lord Freud.
By sharing data from different government offices and credit reference agencies, the investigation service aims to track the "muddy footprints" of professional cheats and detect the patterns of their fraudulent activities.
Lord Freud warned that no wrongful claimant will be let off under the new measures. Minor offenders will be issued with instant fines of £50 or more, while repeat fraudsters face a three-year benefit ban under a "three-strikes-and-you're-out" rule.
Investigators will also aim to seize more of the assets of those found guilty of benefit fraud.
Speaking ahead of Monday's launch of the new strategy, Lord Freud said: "Fraud and error is costing the Government and the taxpayer £5 billion a year - this is unfair and unacceptable.
"We are reforming the system and stepping up our efforts to catch the benefit and tax cheats who are stealing money which is meant for the most vulnerable people in our society.
"When people are convicted we will get back the money we are owed by introducing tough punishments and stripping the assets of criminal gangs - my message to them is that benefit fraud is a crime that just doesn't pay."
Some £5.2 billion of taxpayers' money is lost through fraud and error in benefits and tax credits each year.
Fraud accounts for £1.5 billion of this total, said the Department for Work and Pensions, with £1 billion relating to benefit fraud and £500 million to tax credits.
