No Deal for Bananas as former Zimbabwe president’s son accused of benefit fraud

Former Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana’s son faces a British benefit fraud investigation after being accused of claiming money for a council house while living elsewhere with his wife – who won £95,000 on TV quiz show Deal or No Deal.

Michael Banana is thought to have continued claiming cash for a council house in the UK despite living in a different town with his wife. In an added twist, Banana told the authorities that he and his wife had separated so he could keep up the pretence of living apart.

The scam was exposed when undercover officers filming for a TV series documenting the UK’s worst fraudsters began following Caroline Banana after she didn’t declare her windfall.

Mrs Banana kept on claiming £6,147.92 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support even after winning £95,000 on the quiz show Deal or No Deal in November 2011.

While trailing her, investigators discovered that her husband Michael was living with her in Stoke, even though he continued to claim money for a council house in Stockport in Greater Manchester.

Steve Prince, who works at Stoke-on-Trent City Council and is in charge of the Banana’s case, was alarmed to see Mr and Mrs Banana acting like a couple while staking out Mrs Banana’s house and her children’s school in order to track her movements.

It was thought they had split up in 2008 but Mr Banana, also known as Michael Thabo, appeared alongside his wife in her episode of the Channel 4 show. When investigators searched further they discovered photos on Facebook of the couple together on holiday and found Mr Banana still had his relationship status on the site listed as married.

“She’s been claiming benefits from people like myself who contribute to that system”, Prince said. “When she won the money it was time to say thank you for your help, I don’t need that money anymore.”

He was also shocked to discover that Mr Banana lived in luxury in an impressive state house in Zimbabwe before coming to the UK with his family as political refugees.

Mr Banana’s late father was Canaan Sodindo Banana, Zimbabwe’s notorious first post-independence president who ruled the country for much of the 1980s and passed a law in 1982 forbidding jokes about his name.

He left his own legacy of scandal after he was exposed as a sexual predator who abused male members of his staff. Following his trial in 1998 he was found guilty of 11 charges of sexual assault and sentenced to ten years in jail – nine of which were suspended. He served only six months in an open prison before he died of cancer in 2003.

While Mrs Banana has been sentenced to a 12-month community order and 215 hours of unpaid work, her husband is not yet facing criminal proceedings. He has, however, been ordered to pay back the £2,485 he was overpaid in housing benefits- a decision he is appealing against.

The council have declared that they will take him to court if he does not pay up.