Woman conned council out of £234k in benefits
SHE ALSO USED A FALSE IDENTITY TO GET COUNCIL HOUSING FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS
A WOMAN guilty of defrauding Hillingdon Council out of hundreds of thousands of pounds and using a false identity to get council housing has finally been evicted.
Hillingdon Council says it is currently tackling over 100 cases of potential housing fraud as it announced the successful conviction and eviction of the long-term fraudster, who lived in an Uxbridge home for nearly 20 years.
The woman, a Bangladeshi national who’d entered the UK in 1993 on a stolen identity by using someone else’s passport claimed the house in August 2003 after presenting as homeless, Uxbridge County
Court heard. In 2018 the council’s housing team was made aware the resident was under investigation by the council’s counter-fraud team for deception and that criminal proceedings were being brought against her and her husband.
She was finally evicted in April 2023 after lengthy legal proceedings. During the proceedings, the woman also admitted to claiming social security benefits that she wasn’t entitled to, totalling more than £234,000.
Despite being handed a threeand-a-half year prison sentence in 2019 it took the council another four years to finally evict and repossess the three-bedroom property in Uxbridge where the fraudster and her husband had been living.
Commenting on the case Cllr Martin Goddard, Hillingdon Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “This is a really quite remarkable story of a resident’s two decades of deception and the following fouryear legal saga that has fortunately ended with freeing up a vital home that can go to a family in genuine need from our waiting list.
“I thank our fraud and legal teams for their unwavering work to get this result, which demonstrates our dogged determination to pursue and take action against those who seek to swindle the council.”
There are currently 3,460 people on the housing waiting list as of April. The council has said that it is actively looking into 119 cases of potential housing fraud across the borough and has said work from dedicated anti-fraud teams as well as public tip-offs are crucial.
Cllr Goddard added, about the general issue of housing fraud in the borough: “We could only speculate on how prevalent such cases of fraud are across the borough, but we’re currently investigating 119 cases, with 13 of those heading to the courts. These cases are largely detected by the proactive work of our counter-fraud team, but also via staff engagement and tip-offs from the public.
“We publicise the council’s successes as a deterrent to those who would try to trick the system, but also to urge residents to report suspected fraudulent activity to us so we can take action to help keep our communities safe.”