REVEALED: How YOU pay for Roma gypsy palaces — UK benefits are funding Romanian mansions

LEAVING the EU is the only way to stop UK benefits being spent on “gypsy palaces” in Romania, it was said last night.

Critics now claim Europe’s “open borders” are to blame as migrants continue to tap Britain’s welfare state.

The fresh call to control who can enter the UK came after it was said taxpayers have unwittingly helped to build more than 300 mansions in one small Romanian town alone.

Tandarei has become the Roma town Britain built, with many extravagant homes believed to have been bankrolled thanks to handouts claimed here.

Five years ago there were fewer than 100 mansions in Tandarei.

Now that number has trebled, with some valued at £500,000 and many having British-registered cars parked outside.

Thousands of migrants now see Britain’s soft-touch benefits system as a way of extracting “free money”.

Last night Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “By leaving the EU we can ensure only those who have paid into the system can take out.

“We will also be able to put in place a sensible Australian-style ‘points-based’ immigration system that stops dangerous criminals from coming to Britain.”

Romanian gypsy Ilie Schian was jailed in 2010 after he fleeced the British taxpayer for £114,000 in benefits.

Schian used a false name to plunder the cash, which he spent on sports cars, quad bikes and a nine-bedroom home in Romania.

He was jailed for three years after admitting a string of fraud charges.

And another Roma gypsy bragged he will soon pocket £60,000, which he is using to renovate his house. Ion Lazar built a palace for his wife and children with child benefits and tax credits.

Despite paying nothing into the system he lavished praise on Britain in a recent TV documentary, boasting: “It’s coming in benefits. It’s like free money, thank you England.”

Latest figures show there are 3,500 working-age Romanian benefit claimants in the UK, two years after we opened the border to the country and invited them in.

The amount fraudulently claimed and sent overseas is not seen as a “big issue”, according to officials, yet the figure is feared to run into millions of pounds.

Cheap labour and materials in Romania mean it is easy to build homes millions of hard-working British families can only dream of.

Ukip MEP Mike Hookem said: “The welfare state was set up after the Second World War to ensure people didn’t slip into poverty.

“It was not to fund Gypsy Kings in Romania building lavish palaces funded by people in the UK working on the minimum wage.”

Jordan Ryan of Leave.EU said: “It is disgusting taxpayers’ money is being used in this way while benefits are being cut for the most vulnerable in this country.”

The Department for Work and Pensions said: “We have strict rules in place to prevent people taking advantage of our benefits system.”