Three current and former city welfare workers were busted today along with an alleged accomplice on charges of scamming more than $8 million worth of food stamps.

The brazen rip-off — which dates to April 2007 — involved the creation of more than 1,500 phony poor people using fake names, Social Security numbers and other info, officials said.

City Department of Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said the fraud was uncovered by an “alert” city worker who “noticed something amiss and reported it.”

A Manhattan federal-court complaint says alleged mastermind Vanee Sykes hatched the scheme shortly after being hired by the city Human Resources Administration in 2006 and confessed when she was con fronted by investigators this month.

HRA Commissioner Robert Doar said: “We are re-evalu ating our processes to be sure this unacceptable offense is prevented in the future.”

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(Source: NY Post)