Episode 6 Council House Crackdown

I'm Michelle Ackerley.

My parents both grew up on council estates and, as a family,

we understand the difference social housing can make to people's lives.

But across the UK, there's a chronic shortage of council

and housing association homes.

I know so many friends and so many people that just literally

don't have anywhere to live.

Adding to the crisis, some tenants are abusing the system,

holding on to properties they no longer need or, even worse,

unlawfully subletting them and coining in a small fortune.

Subletting social housing is wrong.

It's wrong, it's illegal and it's wrong.

So every day, we will be with the housing

investigators as they crack down on those rogue tenants...

Bailiffs.

-..reclaim properties...

-Anybody in?

..and give them to families in genuine need.

All of those keys are yours.

Oh, don't, cos you'll start me off again.

This is Council House Crackdown.

Our reporter, property expert Luke Doonan, also grew up

on a council estate and, for the last six months, he's been working

alongside dedicated housing investigators who will stop at

nothing to track down every single tenant who's abusing the system.

Today, we are on a mission to evict people from a property

they have no right to be living in

while the real tenant is serving a six-year jail sentence.

Hello. Bailiff.

We will show how CCTV can stop illegal subletting in its tracks...

Spend hours trolling through the footage till you finally get

that thing where you go, "I've got you."

..and unravel the story of one man who used several completely

different identities to cheat the housing system.

Ultimately, we discovered that David James, David Hargreaves

and David Simmons were all one in the same person.

The UK is in the grip of a housing crisis.

The result is a massive demand for social housing,

but despite the fact that so many families are stuck on waiting lists,

some tenants are blatantly misusing their properties

and abusing the whole system.

-Hello, good morning.

-From the council.

At the forefront of the fight against fraud are Britain's

housing investigators.

Local councils and housing associations are working

tirelessly to catch tenancy cheats and ensure our social housing

stock is in the hands of those who need it most.

-This is your new home?

-Yeah, yeah, hopefully moving in here quite soon.

-Fantastic. Are you excited?

-Yeah, definitely.

Nowhere is the pressure on social housing greater

than in our capital city.

Even incomes of £60,000 a year are not enough to get

you on the property ladder in some areas of London.

With property at such a premium here, more and more people

are turning to social housing to put a roof over their heads, but with

such high demand, it's crucial that existing stock is used properly.

This is antisocial behaviour coordinator Tim Jones.

He works for one of the biggest housing associations in the UK -

One Housing.

They are responsible for 15,000 properties

across 27 London boroughs.

Today, Luke joins Tim in one of their most expensive

postcodes - in the heart of the West End -

on a mission to evict people from a property

they have no right to be living in...

HE KNOCKS

..and where investigators discover to their horror the actual

tenant had been sent to prison for over six years.

To uncover the story, we need to go back a few months

where investigations were started because of some noise complaints.

It was a case we already had running in relation to

allegations of antisocial behaviour.

The antisocial behaviour was reported by neighbours.

The police were involved

and this brought to light some news regarding the tenant,

which housing officers knew nothing about.

We received information from the police that he

was, in fact, in prison for attempted rape, actual bodily harm

and grievous bodily harm.

Oh, my God. That is beyond shocking.

In a normal instance, if you find out that one of your tenants

is in prison, what would you normally do?

How would that normally work out?

Well, it depends.

In this case, we were informed that he was going to be in prison

-for over six years.

-Wow.

So, it wasn't likely that he would be intending to return

to the property any time soon.

The fact is that if they are in prison,

-they are not receiving housing benefit.

-Right.

In this case, was your tenant on housing benefit?

-He was, yes.

-OK.

So, being in prison, housing benefit entitlement ceased.

The arrears were getting quite high,

so we had to press ahead with possession for that reason as well.

OK.

With Tim's tenant just nine months into his six-year prison

sentence, an order to take back his property has been granted.

But the big question is - if he is sat in prison,

who exactly is making all the noise disturbance

and upsetting the neighbours at his flat in central London?

You are going into a very blind situation.

Anyone could be in that property up there

and, surely, there's dangers there.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I am quite apprehensive.

I mean, today is the final day of what has been quite a lengthy

investigation. I don't know what we're going to find.

But I suppose, we will just have to open the door and see what happens.

With witnesses claiming to have seen three people in the property

just two days ago, tensions are running high.

Tim has arranged for a police presence around the corner

in case there's any trouble.

KNOCKING

HE SPEAKS INCOHERENTLY

The bailiffs have knocked on the door,

there doesn't seem to be anyone in,

so the locksmith is now going to gain entry to the property,

so we can see the state of the condition

and if there's someone in there.

The bailiff will go in first to check who, if anyone, is there.

Hello. Bailiff.

Later, we find out what's behind the door of this central London flat.

The smell here is absolutely rancid and disgusting. That is grim.

The crackdown on tenancy cheats is nationwide.

In Cornwall, a 42-year-old woman from Bodmin was

the first in the county to be prosecuted for moving

out of her council house and illegally subletting it.

She received a 12-month

conditional discharge

and ordered to pay legal

costs of over £1,000.

A 37-year-old man from Leeds in Yorkshire sublet his council house,

advertising it online and even issuing a fake tenancy agreement.

He made nearly £2,000 in rent

but was ordered to pay back every penny,

plus over £1,000 in compensation.

Social housing is very important.

I think it's a massive problem facing the country

and facing London, particularly, that people on lower incomes

and even not so low incomes can't afford anywhere to live.

Trying to get on the social housing ladder is really almost impossible.

Cos the supply of housing stock is so short

and there are so many people that need it.

Cos private rents are so expensive. So, it's terrible.

Everyone should be entitled to a place to live,

a roof over their heads that comes at an affordable cost as well.

In the battle to crack down on tenancy cheats,

housing fraud investigators are using everything from CCTV

cameras to good old-fashioned detective work to make sure

they stay one step ahead.

For this next case, Luke's in Oxford

where, thanks to closed circuit TV cameras,

council investigators were able to catch this tenancy cheat red-handed.

It all began when a council repairman was called out

to the property. He wishes to remain anonymous.

I came to the flat for an emergency call-out of no hot water.

It was a one-bedroom property,

but the lounge had been turned into a bedroom as well

and it looked to me like there were two Polish couples in the property.

I then thought, immediately, that the property was being sublet.

The repairman reported his findings straightaway.

His report landed on the desk of Oxford council senior

investigator Catherine Jones who, together with her team, has

won back about 80 misused properties over the last six years.

This is a case of subletting

and we got a report from one of our repairs people that

when they had gone out to mend some heating that they were

-met by four Polish people in a one-bed property.

-Oh.

Obviously, in this particular case, it was quite clear to the man

that went out that our tenant was not resident in the property.

Catherine's tenant, a Mr Keith Smith,

was not at his flat,

but two Polish couples were.

It was time for the team to start looking in more detail

into Mr Smith's background.

They began by looking at his financial footprint.

One of the things that we tried to do is a credit check on the property

to see if there is anybody linked to the address with finances.

The Prevention Of Social Housing Fraud Act of 2013 has given

investigators like Catherine the power to access

a person's financial records,

including bank accounts, loan applications

and credit history.

When you did that, did you uncover anything?

There was some Polish-type names linked to the address,

so we believe the people that the operative had seen

was possibly these people.

OK, and what did you do with that information?

-With that information, we used social media.

-Ah.

And we found them on social media

and they were actually friends of our tenant.

As Catherine continued to sift through the paperwork,

she came across a vital clue.

Keith Smith's bank statement clearly showed

a payment of £450 from one of the Polish occupants,

suggesting they had been subletting the flat from him.

With this information, what would that allow you to do?

We went to the bank and got further bank statements.

And what did they tell you?

They showed that over a period of time

that he had received a total of about £18,000 worth...

-Really?

-..of payments going into his account...

-Wow.

..from people with Polish-sounding names.

-£18,000?

-18.

Whilst on full housing benefit.

But it was a technology that most of us take for granted

that blew this case wide open.

As the flat was in a tower block,

Catherine knew there would be extensive CCTV coverage,

which might hold the key to solving her investigation.

To find out how, Luke meets Catherine's colleague, Dan Barker.

All of our blocks of flats,

any entry point to the building has a fob access.

All of our tenants will be issued with one of these

and every time they enter a building,

they have to swipe it to gain access through the controlled entry doors.

That information is recorded in our system,

gives us details of the date and time they've entered

-and which door they've entered the building through.

-Wow.

It allows us to see when a certain individual is leaving or entering

the building and then we can link that in with our CCTV footage.

By checking the fob usage on the flat,

Dan could clearly see four fobs in daily use,

but there was one fob that was rarely being used.

It was time to put his CCTV footage under the microscope.

The first thing we did was look at the fob which had the low usage,

only being used once or twice a month.

We verified that that was our tenant,

effectively, popping back to pick up his post.

It gets even more clever because you can know the fob that was given

to your original tenant and we can see that's not being used.

Wow.

And then we were able to check the other four fobs

and see the individuals that were using them every single day,

that allowed us to ID them.

I guess this gave you the case.

It did, very much. This was what made the case.

The footage enabled the team to take civil court action

and serve a notice to quit on the property.

Keith Smith, pictured here on the CCTV,

ignored the notice,

but days before it expired, he made one final attempt to avoid

being found guilty of any wrongdoing.

Once the notice of quit had been served,

on the day of its expiry, the tenants themselves moved out.

-We had a tip-off from the caretaker.

-Right.

So, we were then able to come back to the footage

and review over a period of four days around the move out

that showed evidence of them moving all of their possessions out

and the following day, our tenant moved all of his stuff back in.

Incredible.

This extraordinary footage shows Mr Smith moving his belongings

back into the property, so he could claim he was still living there.

It must be so satisfying for you to sit here,

miles away from the property, looking at the dates.

Bang, bang, bang. Bang to rights, you've got them.

It is. You really get that sort of gotcha moment.

You sit here, spend hours trolling through the footage to

finally get that thing where you go, "I've got you."

Later, we will see what happens in court to Keith Smith

and how his one-bedroom flat helps to free up a much-needed,

larger council house elsewhere.

Tenancy fraud often only comes to light when a neighbour

or an unwitting subtenant realises what's going on

and alerts the authorities.

In Norwood, South London, a 51-year-old man sublet his social

housing property, giving the subtenant the impression

he owned the flat, but just a week after moving in,

the subtenant became suspicious and contacted Lambeth Council.

The tenant was fined £1,100.

Foreign travel and a lavish lifestyle were all very

nice for the author of this autobiography,

but behind that facade, there is a completely different story to tell.

Its author is caught up in one of the worst tenancy fraud

cases we've ever come across, involving multiple illegal

sublets and at least three different identities.

Luke meets Lambeth Council's senior investigator,

Alan Emerson, in Clapham, South London to unravel

the case of a Mr David Simmons.

So, this is Bedford Road in Clapham,

we're just off of Clapham High Street here.

OK, this is a really, really central location, isn't it?

Yeah, it's just off... We've got Clapham North Station

just down the road from us here and all the amenities of Clapham there.

-So, it's quite a desirable place to live, actually.

-OK.

Tell me about the property and the story behind it.

-OK, so this is

-BLEEP.

It's a council property.

-It was formerly for tenancy for David Simmons.

-OK.

David had lived in the borough for a few years at a private

address in Streatham.

He applied for a council property in June 2000

because he was suffering from HIV,

which made him a priority on the housing case,

which is why he got the property in such a short space of time.

Normally, our waiting list would take...

Certainly if you don't have a family,

if you are a single male, it would take you years to be able

to get a council tenancy.

It seemed all was well, a legitimate case of social housing

being provided for someone with a medical need.

But a few years later,

the property came to the attention of the local MP.

Her office received a complaint from a man.

He said that his son was living at the address

and had become concerned that this might be a council property.

Oh, OK.

With David Simmons suspected of illegally subletting

his Clapham flat, Alan and his team went round to investigate.

What did you find when you came here?

There were three young guys living here.

They had been here for a little over six months.

And they were paying £1,700 a month in rent.

-That's a lot.

-It's a highly sought after location.

-OK.

Did the tenants, the subtenants give you any other clues

or could they give you any other information?

Or was it just clear it was being illegally sublet?

Yeah, they told us how long they had been here

and they confirmed who their landlord was.

It was David Simmons, the same person that was our tenant.

They also told us they didn't think they were the first ones

to be at the property cos previous tenants were receiving mail

-at the address as well.

-OK.

So, if not here, where exactly was this man David Simmons living?

Alan is taking Luke to another address,

which David was renting from a private landlord,

just a few miles south in Streatham.

I'm looking round at this road, there's a house opposite,

there's two Porsches, it's a stunning, leafy green road.

But we think this is where he was living

while subletting that property in Clapham

and taking the rent monies from those as his income.

Further background checks revealed

that whilst living here in Streatham,

David Simmons had originally been known as David Hargreaves

but had legally changed his name.

Records also showed that David Simmons was renting

his Streatham flat from private landlord Mr David James.

So who was this so-called private landlord?

Ultimately, we discovered that David James, David Hargreaves

-and David Simmons were all one in the same person.

-Really?

So he's using three...

Three identities and at the moment, now, two properties within Lambeth.

One of which he already owns and stays at

and one which he's subletting.

You are telling me

that David Simmons actually owned this property?

That's right, he owned it from 1999, so he bought it

-about a year before he came to the council for social housing.

-Wow.

As far as we are concerned,

he didn't spend one night in the council property that he obtained.

David Simmons had been found to be the owner/occupier of a very nice

flat in Streatham, whilst pocketing a considerable

sum illegally renting out his council flat in Clapham.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Find out later why David Hargreaves/James/Simmons

is a man with even more secrets.

We were coming across other addresses in the borough

of Kensington and Chelsea.

So we spoke to the local authority

and they confirmed that he was a housing association tenant there.

-This is a copy of...

-A third property. Oh, my God!

The lengths some social housing tenants will go to

to cheat the system is incredible.

In Bristol, a 34-year-old woman claimed to have an income

of less than £18,000 a year in order to get a council house.

But in reality, she was living in Nottingham

and earning over £30,000 a year whilst illegally subletting

the council home she had been given in Bristol.

She had also failed to mention that she owned two other properties.

One of which was an ex-council house that she had purchased

using the Right To Buy scheme.

All of which landed her a seven-month jail sentence.

I think where somebody actually sets out to cheat

and gets something that is different than what they've applied for,

when it's found out, that they basically lose any

opportunity to go on the system again.

That might seem harsh, but I think the penalties have to be

strong enough to actually dissuade somebody from doing something

like that in the first place.

People who sublet the council houses, the book should be thrown

at them, lock, stock and barrel, because they are causing a problem

that shouldn't be there.

Imposing fines and things, I mean, I think

that doesn't really help the problem.

I think that just imposes more on people.

The real victims are people who have genuine need for the property.

People who are in genuine need to be housed in the council accommodation.

They suffer most, then, because all these properties

which should have gone to them

is being used by people who do not need it

or using it for their own personal benefit.

Since 1919, social housing has provided low-cost accommodation

for those on limited incomes,

but there are some unscrupulous people who are abusing

the system and depriving those in genuine need.

Earlier, we discovered details of one such case.

Noise complaints reportedly coming from a highly sought after

central London flat,

which should have been empty because the tenant was actually behind bars.

KNOCKING

It's eviction day and Luke's with the team preparing to force

entry and reclaim the property.

With no idea who has got the keys to this place,

the team are anxious to get in.

-KNOCKING

-Bailiff.

London County Court.

Hello.

All right, you can start making your way in.

So, Tim, there clearly doesn't seem to be anyone here.

It's a huge relief for everyone involved that they've avoided

confrontation inside the flat,

but judging by the state of the place,

it seems we've only just missed the occupants.

Have you ever actually been in this property before?

-I haven't, no. It looks like it's in quite a state.

-Yeah.

A strong smell of cigarette smoke everywhere as well.

Are you quite relieved that there's no-one here?

-Yeah, I'm quite relieved. It helps things to go smoothly.

-Sure.

The smell here is absolutely rancid and disgusting

and it's clear that this place is probably being used for someone

just to doss down and not live because that is grim.

Despite the obvious issues we've found, what really matters is,

Tim and his team have got possession of their property back.

If you got cleaners in, cleared the furniture out,

I guess, you could have this ready to rent pretty quickly.

Yeah, as I say, we've had some much worse ones.

You know, sometimes people are hoarders,

but in the greater scheme of things, it could be a lot worse.

The locks are being changed

and the eviction team's work here is almost done.

In terms of timescale,

when do you think you could be standing on these steps,

a happy man again, handing the keys to someone

who really needs this property?

-I wouldn't think that would take longer than a month.

-Wow.

-That's a pretty short turnaround, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Fantastic.

I'm personally really, really happy that this flat has been taken off

a criminal who was abusing it

and it can now be given back to the community who needs it.

This West End property has since been re-let.

As for the original tenant,

once he is out of jail, he will have to go back

on the housing waiting list, like everybody else.

With housing across Britain at such a premium,

some people will go to extraordinary lengths

to abuse the social housing system.

In Fulham, Southwest London,

a 64-year-old man sublet his four-bedroom council house

whilst living in a converted shed in his back garden.

Features included an en-suite bathroom and built-in wardrobe.

He rented out the four rooms in his real house for up

to £800 a month each

and raked in more than £95,000 in benefits.

He ended up behind bars for ten months.

Earlier in South London, fraud investigator Alan Emerson introduced

Luke to the remarkable case of a Mr David Simmons/Hargreaves/James.

Owner of a very nice flat in Streatham,

he'd also been pocketing a considerable sum

illegally renting out a council flat in Clapham.

As far as we're concerned,

he didn't spend one night in the council property he obtained.

Luke is heading back to Alan's offices to unravel

more about the man with three names.

What else do you have here to show me?

As we were building up a picture of his movements of his cash

holdings, we were coming across other addresses

-outside of the borough...

-Right.

..that he was being linked to financially.

In the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

So we spoke to the local authority and they confirmed that he

was a housing association tenant there.

-This is a copy...

-A third property. Oh, my God!

-So, this is the address here.

-Can I...? Can I...?

This is his council tax bill from Kensington and Chelsea.

So, he has two social housing properties and he has his own home.

That's right. Running the exact same thing

in Kensington and Chelsea and, again,

he doesn't stay at this other property at all.

He has his own property. So, we think

that it's been sublet throughout.

With yet another social housing property linked to their man,

this time in Kensington and Chelsea,

Alan and his team were more than curious to find out

if David-three-names would be at the property.

They attended only to find a doctor and his family in residence.

The doctor confirmed he had been renting from a Mr David James.

He's been busy, hasn't he?

He certainly has.

It seemed David-three-names was subletting not one,

but two different social properties

whilst already owning his own flat in Streatham.

Investigators decided to confront him at home.

What we found when we went to Rydal Road though,

was that he wasn't living at the property any longer.

He'd moved to Egypt.

-Pfff! Really?!

-And was letting out his own property to a tenant.

We found a note here where he's advising the tenant not to

tell anybody that he's in Egypt.

Here it says, "If anyone asks, I'm in Manchester not Egypt,

"for insurance purposes."

-That's right.

-Calculated.

Boiler breakdown. Friend for mail. Mobile in Egypt.

Neighbourhood watch team. Always useful.

-And Bob the builder.

-Bob the builder.

I mean, again, this is like something out of a joke book.

But it was no laughing matter

as the tenant also revealed that he was renting

the place from a Mr David Richardson.

And as officers searched the flat,

they found another change of name deed.

David three-names had just become David four-names.

We found change of name deeds which linked him

-conclusively into being the David James that owns the property.

-Right.

-And we also found a copy of a book that he's written.

-You're joking?

About his life story.

You're making this up, aren't you?

It's signed by him on the first page there.

It's not quite a signed confession

but the book's called 45 Years 45 Lives.

We've only uncovered four of them. So there might be a few more to go.

We can look at certain passages in there and start to link

-these in with the period that he was subletting these properties.

-Right.

And when he talks about moving to places like Marrakech

and Egypt, we think at the time he was probably living on benefits.

And it was the funds he was receiving from subletting

these properties that he was using to pay for an apartment

overlooking the River Nile.

Or for the place he lived in when he spent six months

living in Marrakech.

So he's jetting around the world. He has quite a lifestyle.

Lucky him.

And all the while, no legitimate income to pay for that lifestyle.

It all comes from his offending.

David was brought in for formal questioning,

where he continued to maintain his facade.

But the team had enough evidence to take legal action against him.

It was at this point he made his last, calculated move.

Whilst awaiting trial, he sold his property at Rydal Road.

His flat in Streatham went for £450,000.

Oh, my God, that's absolutely stunning.

In the current market today,

this is a property that most people would dream of living in.

Yeah, I mean, this was his home.

This is where he was based throughout the time that

he was subletting those properties.

Shocking. Now, I'm scared to ask, in every way.

Ten or 11 years illegal subletting two properties.

What do you think his gain would have been through those years?

We think that he benefited to the tune of more than £300,000.

£300,000.

That could build four of five family homes for social housing.

And one individual, over quite a long period,

has kind of got away with blue murder, hasn't he, so far?

Yeah, it's a lot of money. It's a lot money.

But with a treasure chest of evidence, the case went to court.

And David four-names has been ordered to repay over £30,000.

If he fails to do so, he could go behind bars.

Congratulations indeed. And I hope your brilliant work continues.

Thank you, Luke.

I think there's a massive demand for social housing.

There's a lot of people under the poverty line.

Struggling to live.

Family sizes are, you know, large, substantially large.

So yeah, it's definitely needed.

There's a lot of vulnerable people out there that would need

the housing more than other people who are just sub-letters.

If they're subletting, making money,

they're denying an opportunity for someone who really could be in need.

People who suffer are always at the bottom.

Earlier in Oxford, Luke witnessed how technology put housing

investigators on the trail of a Mr Keith Smith.

Suspected of illegally subletting his one-bedroom tower block flat.

-We verified that that was our tenant.

-Right.

Effectively popping back to pick up his post.

Keith Smith was barely ever there.

It was clear two Polish couples

were the real inhabitants of this council flat.

And senior investigator Catherine Jones had evidence to suggest

they were paying to be there.

-He had received a total of about £18,000...

-Really?!

-..of payments going into his account.

-Wow.

From people with Polish-sounding names.

-£18,000?

-18,000.

-Pff!

With their evidence piled high, the team were ready to take

Mr Smith to civil court to get the property back.

But Catherine discovered he'd also had considerable rent arrears.

And it would be quicker to evict him for non-payment than subletting.

Keith Smith was duly kicked out.

Luke joins council investigator Catherine,

who's on her way to Mr Smith's former flat

where this story has a happy ending.

It's actually quite a smart tower block, isn't it?

It's not too bad, actually.

-Hi, Phil.

-Hey.

-I'm Catherine from the council. This is Luke.

-Hello, nice to meet you.

-Can we come in and talk to you for five minutes?

-Yeah.

OK, thanks very much.

-This is the actual living room. It's nice and big.

-Wow.

This is really nice, Phil. Really large.

And really light as well. Incredible.

Less than a month after Mr Smith's eviction,

Phil was able to move into the flat.

So, Phil, tell me, you've been here just two weeks.

-Yeah.

-Where were you living before?

A three-bedroom house.

It was a case of having cheaper bills.

It was just too much electric.

Living alone in a three-bedroom council property was not only

putting Phil in debt,

it was preventing a family from benefiting from a larger home.

How do you feel about your ex house being given to a family who

-really needs it?

-It's better that I'm in here and they get that.

What else can you say?

Catherine, it must be really satisfying for you

to see this happen.

It's the main thing that keeps us going and doing our job really.

To see people get housed in properties where they actually

need them, that benefit them, as in this gentleman's case.

Yeah, indeed. I'm really happy to see this.

-It's like, for me, really, this is winners all round.

-Yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

As for the former tenant, Keith Smith,

after handing back the property, he was taken to court.

He pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates Court

to failing to disclose his subletting,

and failing to declare the income he made from his sub-tenants.

He was sentenced to a 12-month community order

and ordered to pay costs of £250.

Later, we see how this tenancy cheat managed to avoid a jail

sentence but was forced to hand back the keys to her

social housing flat in Wandsworth after she was caught out partying

halfway around the world.

This is some of the red carpet events she was attending in Nigeria.

Just from those photos, it looks like she's leading an almost

-celebrity lifestyle, doesn't she?

-Yeah.

Social housing in Britain is at a premium,

and it's often larger family properties that are most needed.

Yet they're in desperately short supply.

But for older people, leaving these family homes

after many years can be a wrench.

Today, Luke is in North London

meeting Kevin Beirne from One Housing

to visit a brand-new scheme which is aiming to tackle the issue.

-Hi, Kevin. How are you?

-Hi, Luke. Really nice to see you.

You too. You're OK?

This new-build social housing project in Tottenham, North London,

is aimed at a very specific market. Those over 65.

The whole idea is to make it a really aspirational place

-for people who are retired...

-OK, that sounds good.

-..moving on in years.

-Yup.

And by doing that, you free up family homes somewhere else.

There's now 11.4 million people in the UK aged 65 or over.

And with life expectancy extending year after year,

it's imperative their housing needs are addressed properly.

If you look at this area,

-it's a real traditional residential location.

-Mm-hm.

We have quite a significant ageing demographic right across the UK

and it's one of the real features of the London housing market.

-And that group of people, who, as I say, are here already...

-Sure.

..really want to be able to move on and spend their later years

in a building which is really fit for their needs.

-And helps them achieve, you know, a really great lifestyle.

-Mm.

And at the same time,

they can leave behind some of the most precious resources in housing.

Otherwise know as the

three and four-bedroom family house with a garden

-which are really difficult to develop these days.

-Yeah, sure.

It's great news that those sought-after larger properties

could become available for growing families.

Thanks to developments like this.

But what's on offer here for a prospective elderly resident

leaving the family home after so many years?

I'll show you one of the one-bedroom flats.

-We're here on the top floor...

-OK.

-..of the development.

-If you'd just like to come in here.

-Sure.

I mentioned storage is really important,

particularly to our downsizing seniors.

So here's a rather large storage facility as soon as you

come into this flat.

And you can see that you've got the dual aspect.

And a really nice balcony.

It's really big, isn't it? I mean, look at that.

-That's massive.

-Yeah, it's a really, really useful outside space.

For this group of people, it's all about wanting to come and move here.

And not making yourself somehow feel as though you have been moved here.

So it should be really much pull rather than push.

Do you think we need to change the way we see growing older in the UK?

I think sometimes we get trapped,

don't we, into a view in the UK that an Englishman's home is his castle.

And that has to be the home that he's lived in for the last 30 years.

I think we've seen in other developed societies

actually people being much more mobile and actually matching their

housing at any given time to what their life is like at that time.

I think when that's done, the feedback you get is that

people have a hugely improved lifestyle and sense of wellbeing.

They really enjoy those later years.

-And where they live can be a really positive part of that.

-Mm.

Subletting of social housing is disgusting

and people should be prosecuted.

They clearly, if they've left the premises, don't need it any longer.

They shouldn't be making a profit from it.

It should go to people who need it.

Trying to get my son accommodation, who lives with me,

but there's no-one-bedrooms in Islington.

And I've been told he'd have to move out the area, away

from his family, away from people he knows which I think is very unfair.

My sister's in social housing

and having some problems at the moment herself.

She's got a child and she's constantly under threat of being

thrown out and being put into a bed and breakfast and things like that.

So it's... Yeah, not great.

Whilst those with real need struggle to get social housing,

some tenants get away with sitting on theirs

whilst living the high life.

Luke's at housing association Viridian in London,

where investigators snared one tenancy cheat

thanks to a trail of evidence that led them halfway round the world.

Housing investigator Gema, who wishes to remain anonymous,

found the tenant of one of her flats actually living, working

and partying in Nigeria.

This one came to us following another tenant nearby

letting us know that she'd seen different people going in

and out the property.

One of the neighbours contacted you?

Yeah. I mean, obviously she was concerned about the situation.

You know, who's living in the property.

How do you deal with that? What do you do?

Obviously we do the basic checks.

That's going through local authorities,

see what evidence we hold on our records.

We'll do credit checks at the property.

In this case, that's what threw up a lot of our evidence.

Those enquiries, and a couple of internet searches later,

and the shocking truth appeared.

Gema's tenant was living in Nigeria.

Working for a law firm.

-I'll show you some of the information.

-OK.

This is a company that she was working for.

-When you saw that, were you shocked by that?

-Yeah.

Very much so. We didn't want to leave it at that.

So we continued the investigation. We found out more information.

It seems Gema's tenant was quite the party girl.

This is some of the red carpet events

she was attending out in Nigeria.

Just from those photos, it looks like she's leading

an almost celebrity lifestyle, doesn't she?

Yeah. I mean, she's been named as attending this fashion show in 2012.

Gema had plenty of evidence that her tenant was cheating the system.

Living more than 3,000 miles away in Lagos, Nigeria.

So what was happening at her flat in Wandsworth while she wasn't there?

-This is it just here.

-Wow.

-Just the first floor flat there.

-OK.

-Quite a good location, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Your tenant is not in the country,

she's blatantly working somewhere else.

You found that out. What was going on with the property?

We believe she'd been subletting.

Basically, it looked like a family friend

-that she'd been subletting to.

-Ah, OK.

So I think we were on a dead end in getting any

information from the subtenant.

Not only was Gema's tenant not living at the flat she'd been

allocated, she was allowing someone else to stay there

without the knowledge of the authorities.

With enough evidence gathered to stop her in her tracks,

Gema decided to call time on her tenancy cheat.

But further investigations revealed the tenant was about to fly

to Barbados for a family wedding.

Found out through the investigation that she may be in Barbados

-attending a family wedding.

-Lucky her.

-Yeah.

Gema's online research led her to details of a family wedding

which was taking place on Saturday 18th of July, 2015.

The exact day Gema served her notice to quit

on the flat in Wandsworth.

All the details of the wedding was listed.

-We had her contact details, her Lagos number.

-Right.

So, while Gema's tenant partied in Barbados 3,000 miles away,

outside her Wandsworth flat, Gema posted her notice

and sent an e-mail notification too.

It wasn't long before she heard back.

She was so upset.

I mean, I must have had about two phone calls, e-mails, texts,

must have been on the phone for an hour.

She was saying, "I haven't done anything wrong."

And that's what made me even more upset and angry.

I was like, "Seriously? Have you not noticed what's going on?"

You've served notices on her. Did she accept that?

Did she give the property back straightaway?

Initially, she did want to say no. She's still living here.

But at the 11th hour, Gema's tenant had a change of heart

and handed over the keys.

There is annoyance, anger, to some extent.

Cos I just think of all those people who've been on the waiting list

-for several years.

-You've got the property back.

It's now being re-let to someone who genuinely needs social housing.

-It must make you so happy.

-So happy.

As the housing crisis worsens,

it seems there's no limit to the levels some people will go to

to cheat the system.

But thanks to the tireless work of housing officers all

across the country, these fraudsters are no longer getting away with it.