Episode 3 Council House Crackdown


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Transcript


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I'm Michelle Ackerley.

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

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

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Millions of families across the UK are struggling to find affordable housing.

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So this is my front room and my bedroom together.

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Many are living in temporary or overcrowded conditions,

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desperate for somewhere decent to live.

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This is our room where we sleep and this is what we've got at the minute.

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We can't really call it our home.

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But some social housing tenants are abusing the system,

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holding on to properties they no longer need.

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When somebody applies for housing,

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you expect them to live in a property and when they don't,

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it does start to take the mickey.

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Or even worse, making a small fortune by illegally subletting them.

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He's charging beyond £1,500 a month.

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He exploited this completely to his advantage.

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So I'm with housing investigators cracking down on tenancy cheats...

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-What a waste.

-If you want to commit tenancy fraud,

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don't bother coming here.

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..reclaiming properties...

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I need to speak to you, please.

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They've seen an opportunity and they think they're not going to get caught.

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..and giving them to families in genuine need.

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That's how a council house should be.

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It should be loved and looked after.

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This is a Council House Crackdown.

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Today...

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the fake council cleaner who over 14 years brazenly swindled hundreds of

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thousands of pounds from the public purse.

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You'd think she'd want to steer away from the council rather than be

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-working within the building.

-Exactly.

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Investigators unravel an illegal subletter's lies...

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There you can see a handbag there and girl's pyjamas.

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There was nothing in that flat belonging to Mr Raji.

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Nothing at all.

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..revealing an astonishing double life.

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This is an individual who is mixing with Premiership footballers

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who's, you know, got a very well-paid job.

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The arrogance of that, really, is the galling part.

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And subtenants help a fraud team bring down an illegal landlord.

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Yeah, we're home now, so if you want, you can come around.

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-I need to speak to you, please.

-Can you open the door, please, sir?

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Social housing is intended to go to those most in need.

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It provides struggling families and individuals with a stable home

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and subsidised rent well below the market value,

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but for unscrupulous social tenants,

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subletting their home and charging at or near the normal market rate

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provides a lucrative but unlawful income.

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Our first case involves this man - Adio Raji,

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a fully qualified goalkeeping coach,

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working at some of London's top football clubs and leading a lifestyle

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that would be the envy of any football fan.

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This is an individual who's mixing the Premiership footballers,

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who's got a very well-paid job and making a profit out of this flat.

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You know, the arrogance of that, really, is the galling part.

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It all started here in this block of flats right next door to

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Charlton Athletic Football Club in south-east London.

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Back in 1995, Mr Raji, a single young man,

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who enjoyed his football and was in need of housing,

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was allocated a flat on the 12th floor.

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To Greenwich counter fraud manager Nigel Brown and his colleagues,

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this tenancy seemed like a perfect match.

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As you can see, we're right next to and overlooking the Charlton football ground.

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This is a really desirable place to live and this is where Mr Raji

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had his one-bedroom flat.

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Now, if you are into your football, you are really close to the ground,

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you wouldn't even need to pay for a ticket.

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Although Mr Raji's flat was social housing,

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it was owned and run not by Greenwich Council,

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but by housing association Charlton Triangle.

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There are over four million social housing properties in the UK.

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More than half of those, 2.3 million,

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are owned and run by housing associations.

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The rest are council properties.

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Charlton Triangle rent officer Annette and fraud investigator Yasmin

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pride themselves on getting to know their tenants and supporting them

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through difficult times.

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One of their favourite tenants was none other than Mr Raji.

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He used to come into the office and we used to, you know, laugh and joke

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with him and everybody got to know him and we all liked him.

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I mean, he had rent arrears. We were trying to sustain the tenancy.

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One of the ways of doing that is helping people get into employment.

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So that was one of the main things we helped him to do.

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But everybody knew him.

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-He was quite a charismatic person, I suppose.

-Yes.

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Mr Raji eventually got work as a UEFA qualified goalkeeping coach

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and during the time he was living in the flat, he worked at several top

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football clubs, as well as doing jobs such as chauffeuring

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to top up his income.

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Then, in June 2015,

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fraud investigator Yasmin

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got a tip-off e-mail from Charlton Triangle's building services team

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telling her there appeared to be two women living

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in Mr Raji's one-bedroom flat.

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Knowing Mr Raji as they did, they were surprised by the information.

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And we were like, no, it's a mistake, something's wrong.

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Myself and Annette went down to the property.

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We got to the door and there was a young lady coming out of the lift.

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We asked if she lived in the property, she said yes.

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Having been let into the flat, they had a good look around.

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We took some photographs and as you can see, this is a girl's bedroom.

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Mauve and pink colours were all round the room.

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There was flowers there.

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There you can see a handbag there, girl's pyjamas.

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There wasn't so much as a pair of football boots to suggest Mr Raji

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was living there.

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And this is the other end of the room.

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Mr Raji is 6'4" with no hair at all,

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so there'd be no reason for him to have a hairdryer.

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It was starting to look as if Mr Raji had moved out of his

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social housing property and two young women have moved in.

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This is supposed to be the front room, but had a double bed in it.

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Again, women's things.

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There was no men's products around.

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Their make up, creams...

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Actually, when I saw this, I did have to laugh.

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It was quite clear-cut he was subletting to these young ladies

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because there was nothing in that flat belonging to Mr Raji.

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Nothing at all.

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The woman at the flat gave them a witness statement there and then,

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saying she and the other subtenant were paying Mr Raji a total

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of £800 a month in rent -

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nearly twice the social rent Mr Raji was paying

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Charlton Triangle.

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She said she'd been staying there for the last 12 months.

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They would pay into his bank account. Then he stopped that

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and said that he wanted cash only.

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And they said, on the 6th of every month, he would come up to the flat

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and take the cash from them.

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And apparently he had a key and would let himself in as well.

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So he would just turn up and walk into the flat.

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Yasmin and Annette were shocked.

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If the claims of the subtenant were true, their tenant, Mr Raji,

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was guilty of tenancy fraud.

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One of those situations where you scratch your head in disbelief.

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You think, "No, not Mr Raji. Can't be." But, yes, it was.

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They invited him to come into the office for an interview.

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He denied subletting his one-bedroom flat,

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claiming the woman was an ex-partner who was staying there rent free.

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And we were kind of like, "Where do you sleep?"

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-And he said the hallway.

-He said he slept in the hallway.

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We got him to sign some paperwork saying that

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was his only home, his only principal home,

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that he was not living anywhere else.

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But his story didn't ring true.

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He said that we were his friends.

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-Yes.

-That's the bit that made me laugh.

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That, you know, we were his best friends, almost.

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And he wouldn't do anything to hurt us.

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With Mr Raji denying everything,

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Yasmin and Annette needed hard evidence.

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So they called in the Royal Borough of Greenwich fraud team

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led by experienced investigator Karen Evans.

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I've dealt with a lot of sublets.

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And often people will deny that they're subletting.

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You don't expect them to do anything else. Often they've been doing it

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for many years and making a lot of money from it. So they're going to

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try and cover their tracks. My job is to undo what they're telling me,

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to find out what is the truth,

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to obtain the evidence to prove that, and get them into court,

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and hopefully get the conviction at the end of the day.

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The Prevention of Social Housing Tenancy Fraud Act 2013

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makes unauthorised subletting a criminal offence,

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punishable by up to two years in jail or a fine of up to £50,000.

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Councils have been given new powers to access personal data

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such as bank accounts,

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in order to help them secure evidence of tenancy fraud,

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and prosecute those responsible.

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Later, as Greenwich Council

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used these new powers to unravel Mr Raji's deception,

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he reveals his true colours.

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He was lying from the beginning.

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He was blaming somebody else for what he was doing wrong.

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We couldn't believe that Mr Raji would behave in that manner.

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Shocking and upsetting and disappointing, to say the least.

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There are more than 200,000 social housing properties

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across the West Midlands.

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That's 5% of the UK's entire social housing stock.

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But even so, the pressure on housing here is huge.

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And Birmingham has embarked on a programme to build 2,000 more

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council properties by 2020.

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In Sandwell, six miles outside Birmingham,

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there are around 4,000 people on the housing waiting list,

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many in overcrowded or emergency accommodation.

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Our next case involves this woman, Yvette Logan,

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real name Lillian Wade.

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She shouldn't even be in the UK,

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but for the last 14 years,

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she's been living in a council flat in Sandwell

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claiming almost £100,000 in benefits and even getting herself a job

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at the local council.

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So, let me get this straight,

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she had a council property in the name of Yvette Logan,

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passport in the name of Yvette Logan,

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and was working for the council in the name of Yvette Logan.

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I find it absolutely shocking.

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The story starts here at Gatwick Airport,

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where Lillian Wade arrived from Jamaica in 1999.

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She was refused entry, but granted temporary admission

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for just half a day,

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on the condition she flew back the next morning.

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But she absconded.

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And it was to take another 14 years before anyone caught up with her.

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I'm in Sandwell to see the council's counter fraud manager Oliver Knight.

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So, when she came to us, she'd been in the country for about a year

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before she approached the council.

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She explained that she was a single person and in need of accommodation.

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And so, what was her application like?

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It didn't have any alarm bells or anything that you thought...?

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No, there was nothing untoward.

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Nothing that really looked like anything was suspicious.

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By now, Lillian Wade had a whole new identity.

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She called herself Yvette Logan.

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Aged 55, she had a UK passport in that name,

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and a national insurance number also in that name.

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Her housing application was successful.

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As a single woman in need of somewhere to live,

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she was allocated a council flat.

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But her next move was even more brazen.

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As well as applying for a council property, she also came to us

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in about 2000 and applied for a job and was given a position

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as a cleaner. And worked there for about four or five years.

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So, let me get this straight,

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she had a council property in the name of Yvette Logan,

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a passport in the name of Yvette Logan,

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and was working for the council in the name of Yvette Logan.

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I find it absolutely shocking.

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Just the cheek of it. How did she get away with it?

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In all honestly, I don't know.

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Even to this day. Obviously, the passport was the trigger.

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And the identification behind that. And, obviously, once she's got that,

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it makes it a lot easier to get through the checks that we would have in place.

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You'd think she'd want to steer away from the council rather than be working within the building.

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Exactly. You wouldn't have thought for a second that her ideal placement

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for work would have been right under the noses of the council.

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And what do your colleagues at Sandwell Council think about this?

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Well, obviously, it was amazing at the time.

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When we began the investigation,

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we thought it was just about the council property.

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It was only when we started to look at who she was

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that we realised she'd actually been employed by us as well.

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In 2005, Yvette Logan resigned from her cleaning job at the council

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on medical grounds and started claiming benefits.

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She received housing benefit and council tax benefit,

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as well as other benefits.

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Effectively, the council then began to pay her rent for her and she was

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-living rent-free.

-How much money, roughly, in total, did this amount to?

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In total, she received about £30,000 of benefits,

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housing benefit and council tax benefit.

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She also claimed benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions,

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including incapacity benefit, income support,

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employment and support allowance

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and disability living allowance.

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Grand total - nearly £100,000.

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And then in 2013 after a routine data matching exercise,

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authorities noticed Yvette Logan was using

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someone else's national insurance number

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and that someone else was also called Yvette Logan.

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And that's when it became clear through the DWP that there wasn't

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one Yvette Logan, there were two with the same national insurance number.

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It appeared that what she'd been doing is using the national insurance number

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of a different Yvette Logan elsewhere in the country.

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The real Yvette Logan was living in London and was completely unaware

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her details were being used by someone else.

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At first, the authorities assumed there'd been a mix-up and issued

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Yvette Logan, the one living in Sandwell,

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with a new national insurance number. But behind the scenes,

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suspicions had been aroused and an investigation was launched.

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How did it eventually get to the point where she came under investigation?

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Well, in 2014 she was arrested by the Department for Work and Pensions,

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along with the police,

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following an investigation that they'd been conducting.

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The fact that she'd got an identity that they didn't believe to be correct

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and obviously we then looked at the housing application and thought,

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well, this isn't right, she should never have been given the housing

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application because the information she supplied wasn't correct.

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And I guess it just goes to show that you can't rule anything out

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cos people will go to extraordinary lengths to get these properties and

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literally slipped through the net.

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With so many people desperate for social housing,

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local councils across the UK now have much more rigorous processes

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in place to ensure social housing goes to people who really need it,

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and who are eligible for it.

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We do a lot more in terms of application checkers now,

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especially anybody coming in from a different country.

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We've got better systems in place to look at the application

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and the documentation that they're providing, as well as a lot more

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data matching, so ensuring that the information that's held with

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the likes of the passport agency and immigration is up-to-date.

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On February 24th 2015,

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Yvette Logan appeared before Wolverhampton Crown Court

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under her real name, Lillian Wade.

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She admitted gaining a pecuniary advantage by deception by falsely

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representing she was a British citizen entitled to work in the UK

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and cheating the public revenue.

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She also admitted being in possession of a false identity

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document with intent.

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Lillian Wade, AKA Yvette Logan,

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was sentenced to four years in jail.

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When released, she will be deported.

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I can imagine when the news came through, you must've felt like

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-punching the air.

-Yeah, well, obviously, it was a good decision

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for us and for the Department for Work and Pensions

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who led the prosecution.

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It was only at that point that she surrendered the tenancy to us.

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Funnily enough, she actually phoned us

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from prison to indicate that she'd return the property keys and posted

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them through the letterbox.

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And obviously the fake Yvette Logan is no longer in this property.

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Is someone in it now that actually genuinely needs it?

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There is, yeah. Following the fact that we got the property back,

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obviously it was cleaned up and it was reallocated to somebody

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that needed it and they've lived in the property since.

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The London Borough of Tower Hamlets,

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with soaring property prices, around 20,000 people on the waiting list

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for social housing and more than 80 families with children

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registered as homeless.

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But 600 properties have been lost

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here through Right to Buy applications

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in the last five years.

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Most of my friends are moving out because of the price

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of the houses local, especially in this area, Tower Hamlets.

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We definitely need more council and social housing,

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without a shadow of a doubt. I think the whole idea that everybody can

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afford to get on the property ladder is nonsense now.

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But I don't know how you do anything

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about that because most of the places

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that were council houses have been sold off.

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The housing crisis is hitting hard,

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so it's inevitable that every time someone cheats the system by holding

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on to a property they don't need,

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or by unlawfully subletting it,

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someone else loses out.

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Our next case spans two years and involves this young couple

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who became innocent victims caught up in a tenancy fraud case

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involving this man, Kibria Ahmed.

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I was really upset. It was horrible.

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It felt like everything was perfect and then it's just been taken away.

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The story begins here in Tower Hamlets where, in October 2015,

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this young couple, Shannon and her boyfriend Nayim,

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were looking to build a home together.

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We had a look on Gumtree and found this flat.

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It seemed perfect for what we wanted.

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-It was nice.

-We arranged to meet up with the landlord.

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We sort of reviewed it and everything seemed OK.

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He seemed legit. And then, yeah, we sort of moved in the following week.

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The rent for the one-bedroom flat was £800 per month plus

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a £600 deposit.

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They'd been saving up and could just about afford it.

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We used to be sharing flats before, sharing houses,

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and being in rooms with someone else there.

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But that was only our place. It looks like it's our home.

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As soon as they moved in,

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Shannon and Nayim set about turning their flat into a home.

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It was just great getting things for the house.

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It felt really good.

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It felt like home. I loved coming home from work and stuff like that.

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-It was brilliant.

-Yeah, it was nice.

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Like, having a new home,

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you are happy to call someone, to invite someone to come round.

0:21:020:21:06

-Yeah, proud.

-It was good.

-It's our house.

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But unbeknown to Shannon and Nayim,

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their new home was not a private flat, it was social housing.

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And the tenant, Kibria Ahmed, the man who was supposed to be living there,

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was unlawfully subletting it.

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Mr Ahmed was allocated the flat

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back in 2008 by housing association Poplar Harca.

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Following a tip-off that Mr Ahmed wasn't living there,

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Poplar Harca's fraud investigator Avril Drummond

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decided to investigate.

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On the 3rd of December 2015,

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she called round to the flat hoping to see Mr Ahmed, but instead finding

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Shannon and Nayim.

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It was a police officer and it was this lady. I thought,

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"What's happened? Maybe something's happened."

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She sort of said, "I'm the proper landlord."

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I was a bit like, "No, you're not." So she showed me her ID

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and I was like, "OK, maybe you'd better come in."

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Avril broke the news to them

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that the flat was being unlawfully sublet.

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Shannon and Nayim were devastated.

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I was really upset. I mean, it was horrible.

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It felt like everything was perfect and then it's just been taken away.

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How can someone do that to innocent people?

0:22:170:22:21

It really hurt.

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I mean, having a house, finally living on my own with a person

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that I really wanted to be with and then everything is taken away.

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Avril needed to come face-to-face with her unlawful tenant,

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so she enlisted the help of Shannon and Nayim.

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She came up with a plan to ask the landlord around to fix a blocked sink.

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Our cameras were filming with Avril and her team when this plan

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came to fruition on the 9th of December 2015.

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The best scenario would be for

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this landlord to tell us everything that has been going on,

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hold his hands up, then we'll take it from there.

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Once round at the flat,

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Avril gives Shannon and Nayim a last minute briefing.

0:23:060:23:09

Hello. All right?

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Yeah, thank you for seeing me again today.

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Obviously, we're now waiting for your landlord to turn up, OK?

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So we'll just play it by ear when he gets here.

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We've got the police on stand-by and they are in the locality, as well,

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OK?

0:23:240:23:26

Nayim calls the man who's posing as his landlord and checks

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he's on his way.

0:23:290:23:31

Hi, are you all right?

0:23:310:23:33

Yeah, we are home now, so if you want to come around.

0:23:330:23:36

-All right, thanks, bye.

-Next few minutes.

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The man in question is about to arrive.

0:23:420:23:45

I'm going to be in here. He's not going to know who I am.

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I've got my identification badge on me but I'm not going to be

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-wearing it until he comes in.

-Yeah.

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Later, the search for the illegal subletter Kibria Ahmed

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is stepped up.

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I need to speak to you, please. I'm from Poplar Harca.

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Can you open the door, please, sir?

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And what happens when he's finally brought to justice.

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INDISTINCT SHOUTING

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Earlier, UEFA-qualified goalkeeping coach Adio Raji was suspected of

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illegally subletting his social housing flat.

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To find out if it was true,

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housing association Charlton Triangle decided to pay him a visit.

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There you can see a handbag, girls pyjamas.

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Mr Raji is 6'4" with no hair at all.

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So there would be no reason for him to have a hairdryer.

0:24:420:24:46

Actually, when I saw this, I did have to laugh.

0:24:460:24:49

It was quite clear-cut he was subletting to these young ladies.

0:24:490:24:52

Cos there was nothing in that flat belonging to Mr Raji.

0:24:520:24:56

Nothing at all.

0:24:560:24:59

One of the subtenants made a witness statement saying that they

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were paying Mr Raji £800 a month in rent,

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but the football coach denied everything.

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One of those situations where you scratch your head in disbelief.

0:25:080:25:13

You think, "No, not Mr Raji. Can't be." But, yes, it was.

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If he really was committing tenancy fraud, they needed hard evidence.

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The Royal Borough of Greenwich fraud team was called in,

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led by investigator Karen Evans.

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Her first step was to re-interview the subtenant

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who was to prove a key witness.

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She provided Karen with details of the bank accounts

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she used to pay rent to Mr Raji.

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The evidence that we can obtain from the banks now

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is conclusive, so conclusive, such conclusive evidence.

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The subtenant told us that she'd used a certain bank account

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to pay the money into a bank account number.

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We obtained copies of both of those bank accounts,

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which showed the transfer of money from her to him.

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Bank records show the subtenants were making rental payments

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to Mr Raji of £184 a week.

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That's nearly £800 a month.

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That meant, once he'd paid his social rent,

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Mr Raji was making a clear profit of £330 a month.

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The profit that he'd made for the period that we could prove amounted

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to £4,330.

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Mr Raji continued to vehemently deny he was subletting.

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Clearly, the evidence didn't back that up.

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And that's why I wanted to get him in to interview

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and ask him about the situation,

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showing the documentation that we'd obtained,

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which quite clearly showed the money being paid from the subtenants

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on a regular basis and him very nicely profiting from the situation.

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Mr Raji was invited to attend an interview under caution

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at Greenwich Council.

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He came in.

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He was represented by a solicitor and, right from the off,

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offered no comment to any questions that we wanted to ask him.

0:27:050:27:09

He produced a written statement

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to us which said, "I've always lived there,

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"I don't sublet it, I've never taken in a lodger or a subtenant,"

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and he signs that document as a statement of truth

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here on the 13th of July 2015.

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Karen's colleague, fellow fraud investigator Clive Parish,

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was also present at the interview.

0:27:300:27:33

He seemed quite affronted that we were asking him questions at all

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and that made him a little different, really,

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to the people that I might normally interview. There was almost

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an arrogance about him in the way that he said "No comment,"

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and for somebody like Mr Raji, who put

0:27:500:27:54

a person into his flat and he charged them a rent,

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a rent far and above what he was paying for the flat himself,

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is completely wrong and he was making a profit

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out of his social housing tenancy.

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-Shock and disbelief...

-Yeah.

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..because we deal with people like this all the time.

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The bottom line is the greed.

0:28:150:28:16

-Yeah, it is.

-It's the hurtful thing.

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I feel sorry for the people that are caught in the middle of it.

0:28:190:28:23

Charlton Triangle served Mr Raji

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with a notice to quit and ordered him to hand the keys back.

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He still refused to leave, saying this is where he lived,

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he had nowhere else to go and his landlord took him to court,

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civil courts, on a couple of occasions.

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He was represented and he continued

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to deny that he'd done anything wrong.

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Instead, he contacted the subtenants and told them

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that they had to leave.

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Within a couple of days, he contacted the occupants of the flat,

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he told them that he'd reported the situation to the police,

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that they shouldn't be there

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and that they have to move out immediately.

0:29:060:29:09

One of the occupants left immediately, never to be seen again.

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The other subtenant,

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the one who'd given a witness statement against Mr Raji,

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was away on holiday.

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But that didn't stop him from removing her belongings.

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He came round to this property

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whilst the lady that was renting from him was on holiday

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and he got all of her stuff and he moved it all out.

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He put all of her belongings and furniture in storage

0:29:320:29:35

and when she came back from her holiday,

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she opened the door and all her stuff was gone.

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In fact, I believe she couldn't even get the door open because he changed the locks.

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We couldn't believe that Mr Raji would behave in a manner.

0:29:450:29:50

That was quite...

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shocking and upsetting and disappointing, to say the least.

0:29:520:29:56

I think the reason why the subtenants were ousted out

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of the property was so that he could quickly get back in there to make it

0:29:590:30:03

look like this is where he lives.

0:30:030:30:04

In March 2016,

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Mr Raji finally agreed to sign forms giving up possession

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and return the flat to Charlton Triangle.

0:30:100:30:13

After about a year since we interviewed him, he finally seemed

0:30:130:30:17

to come to his senses that this was not going to go away,

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that he was not going to get away with it.

0:30:200:30:22

By this time, we had got our solicitors involved.

0:30:220:30:25

Myself and another colleague turned up at the flat with the solicitor,

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with the consent order to say that he was going to give up his flat

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and that he would hand the keys back, but he signed the order

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so we got back our one-bedroom property that went

0:30:380:30:41

to somebody deserving of it.

0:30:410:30:44

But that wasn't the end of the matter.

0:30:450:30:48

Because of his deception and the overwhelming evidence,

0:30:480:30:51

Greenwich Council decided to proceed with a criminal prosecution.

0:30:510:30:55

In December 2016, Mr Raji pleaded guilty to fraud,

0:30:550:30:59

unlawful subletting and unlawful eviction.

0:30:590:31:03

I think that Mr Raji realised that, you know, it was bang to rights.

0:31:030:31:09

The evidence was overwhelming.

0:31:090:31:11

The statements that backed it up were all there.

0:31:110:31:16

He didn't really have much movement. If we were going to go to trial,

0:31:160:31:19

he knew he would be in a difficult situation and I think he realised

0:31:190:31:24

that he needed to back down and plead and take the rap, basically.

0:31:240:31:31

After an investigation lasting nearly two years,

0:31:310:31:34

Mr Raji was given a 12 month jail sentence,

0:31:340:31:37

suspended for 18 months,

0:31:370:31:39

and was ordered to pay £4,330

0:31:390:31:43

in compensation -

0:31:430:31:44

the amount he had made

0:31:440:31:46

in unlawful profits.

0:31:460:31:47

Obviously, you know, it takes a lot of time and effort, but the result

0:31:520:31:57

was the right result of the end of the day and we were very satisfied

0:31:570:32:00

with the outcome.

0:32:000:32:02

An opinion shared by head of fraud at Greenwich Council, Nigel Brown.

0:32:020:32:06

You could argue should he go to prison, yes or no?

0:32:060:32:09

At the end of the day, it costs us all money to put Mr Raji in prison,

0:32:090:32:12

therefore there is no financial gain out of that.

0:32:120:32:14

I think for him to lose £4,500 and to have that

0:32:140:32:17

now on his record in the future that he's been done for tenancy fraud

0:32:170:32:22

is a good thing for all concerned, other than him, obviously.

0:32:220:32:25

I know how short we are of social housing.

0:32:270:32:31

I know how many people are desperate to find somewhere to live and yet

0:32:310:32:35

we've still got tenants making their own allocations policies

0:32:350:32:39

and deciding who they should be housing and that's not how it works.

0:32:390:32:43

That frustrates me and it satisfies me greatly

0:32:430:32:46

to know that we've got that property back.

0:32:460:32:48

Back in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets,

0:32:550:32:57

Shannon and her boyfriend Nayim thought they'd found a place

0:32:570:33:00

to call home but a few months after moving in,

0:33:000:33:03

they discovered they'd been conned.

0:33:030:33:05

The flat and they'd been renting was a social housing property

0:33:060:33:09

and the tenant, Kibria Ahmed, was committing fraud by subletting it.

0:33:090:33:14

With their help, fraud investigator Avril Drummond is trying

0:33:140:33:18

to track down her tenant.

0:33:180:33:19

Hello, thank you for seeing me again today.

0:33:210:33:24

Obviously, we're now waiting for your landlord to turn up, OK?

0:33:240:33:28

So we'll just play it by ear when he gets here.

0:33:280:33:31

We've got the police on stand-by and they are in the locality as well.

0:33:310:33:34

OK?

0:33:340:33:36

Eventually, a man turns up.

0:33:390:33:42

But it's not Mr Ahmed.

0:33:420:33:44

Avril calls the police in and he is arrested, questioned,

0:33:440:33:48

but later released without charge.

0:33:480:33:50

The next morning, Avril briefs fellow investigator Mike Frost

0:33:530:33:57

about the previous day's events.

0:33:570:33:59

We asked him about Mr Ahmed.

0:33:590:34:01

He said, as a friend, he was helping Mr Ahmed, but he only

0:34:010:34:04

posed as the landlord.

0:34:040:34:07

He took the £800 a month and gave it to his friend.

0:34:070:34:10

He said, "I'm not taking any money for myself."

0:34:100:34:12

That's kind of him, isn't it?

0:34:120:34:14

The rent Kibria Ahmed was paying to Poplar Harca was just £292 a month.

0:34:140:34:19

Avril and Mike are more determined than ever to track him down

0:34:190:34:23

and bring him to justice.

0:34:230:34:25

They get a tip-off that he's in the area and then they spot his car.

0:34:270:34:32

"Kibs" as in Kibria. Possibly.

0:34:320:34:38

I need to speak to you, please.

0:34:380:34:41

Sorry? I'm from Poplar Harca.

0:34:410:34:43

Can you open the door please, sir?

0:34:450:34:47

I'm Michael Frost from the fraud investigation team.

0:34:500:34:53

His identity is confirmed.

0:34:530:34:55

Avril calls the police and Mr Ahmed, in the hooded coat,

0:34:550:34:58

is handcuffed and led away for questioning.

0:34:580:35:02

They are searching his vehicle at the moment which he said was a gift

0:35:030:35:07

from his mother, so we'll wait and see if they uncover any evidence

0:35:070:35:11

from there.

0:35:110:35:12

Later, the investigation comes full circle and Mr Ahmed faces his day

0:35:190:35:24

in court...

0:35:240:35:25

I feel justified in bringing the case to court. Too many people

0:35:250:35:29

believe social housing fraud is not a big deal and it doesn't really

0:35:290:35:32

matter, but now we will bring criminal prosecutions when we

0:35:320:35:36

deem them necessary.

0:35:360:35:38

..and what happens when he feels the full weight of the law.

0:35:380:35:42

The housing crisis is no longer confined to densely populated

0:35:540:35:58

metropolitan areas of the UK.

0:35:580:36:00

Here in the cathedral city of Peterborough,

0:36:020:36:04

there are almost 3,000 people on the waiting list,

0:36:040:36:07

nearly 400 of those are families in desperate need.

0:36:070:36:10

Adrian Chapman is the council's director of adult services and communities.

0:36:120:36:17

About a year ago, we were probably advertising about 40 properties

0:36:170:36:22

a week that people could apply for.

0:36:220:36:24

These days, if we get up to double figures a week, we're doing really well,

0:36:240:36:28

so we've got a lot of demand and not enough supply.

0:36:280:36:32

In 2015-16, the council spent more

0:36:320:36:36

than £1 million putting families in temporary accommodation,

0:36:360:36:40

including B&Bs and even the local Travelodge.

0:36:400:36:44

We will always accommodate people, albeit temporarily,

0:36:450:36:49

albeit sometimes in bed-and-breakfast accommodation

0:36:490:36:52

or, as we're currently having to use, a Travelodge.

0:36:520:36:54

There is no need for anybody to not have a roof over their heads.

0:36:540:36:57

We've got some nice chicken soup that grand-mummy made.

0:36:590:37:01

Then we've got some milk, haven't we?

0:37:010:37:03

We are struggling in here because it is difficult just being one room

0:37:050:37:09

with the three of us.

0:37:090:37:10

This young family, Joshua, Caroline and 16-month-old Phoebe,

0:37:100:37:15

are living in this single room in a hostel on the outskirts

0:37:150:37:19

of Peterborough.

0:37:190:37:20

This is all we have, basically. This is our room where we sleep.

0:37:200:37:23

This is our room where we do everything with Phoebe.

0:37:230:37:26

There's shared bathrooms, shared kitchen, so it's not ideal, really.

0:37:260:37:32

But, I mean, this is what we've got at the minute.

0:37:320:37:35

We can't really call it our home, but until we find somewhere

0:37:350:37:39

or the council puts us somewhere, this is all we've got, really.

0:37:390:37:43

Joshua and Caroline were both in work when their landlord decided

0:37:430:37:47

to sell up, ironically so the house could be converted

0:37:470:37:51

into temporary accommodation units.

0:37:510:37:53

Suddenly, they were homeless.

0:37:530:37:56

People think homeless, they just think of someone on the street selling the Big Issue and people

0:37:560:38:01

don't really think that people in B&Bs and hostels are considered

0:38:010:38:06

as homeless, but this isn't a home, as you can see.

0:38:060:38:09

It's just one room for the three of us.

0:38:090:38:12

It's a real struggle at times.

0:38:120:38:15

The shock of being made homeless whilst bringing up a young child

0:38:150:38:19

placed a huge stress on this young couple.

0:38:190:38:22

They are struggling to come to terms with their new circumstances.

0:38:220:38:26

Over here, we've got some cupboard space.

0:38:260:38:29

It's got some stuff in it.

0:38:290:38:31

And then we've got some of our food down here.

0:38:310:38:34

I think the worst of it is just sort of...

0:38:340:38:40

how cramped it is and how little there is, really.

0:38:400:38:44

Like, the fact we're having to put most of our stuff under the bed.

0:38:470:38:51

The upheaval has had a huge impact on this young family.

0:38:510:38:55

Joshua and Caroline have lost their jobs and they now need to get back

0:38:550:38:58

into employment as soon as possible.

0:38:580:39:01

But job-hunting without a permanent address is difficult.

0:39:010:39:06

I think getting the house is the first step towards

0:39:060:39:11

getting our lives back on track, really, cos that's another thing,

0:39:110:39:16

like, with the whole temporary accommodation,

0:39:160:39:19

it does kind of put your life on hold a little bit.

0:39:190:39:23

The longer you are in here,

0:39:230:39:25

the harder it makes it to get back on track.

0:39:250:39:28

Since filming, Caroline has managed to get a job in telesales,

0:39:280:39:32

but they are still living in temporary accommodation.

0:39:320:39:35

There's definitely been a fair share of our dark moments, I'd say, but I

0:39:370:39:42

do feel quite confident that we can only move forward from here, really.

0:39:420:39:47

For Phoebe's sake, I just want to get this sorted.

0:39:470:39:49

With property prices and private rents at an all-time high,

0:39:560:39:59

more families than ever are in desperate need for social housing,

0:39:590:40:03

which is why it's so very important housing fraud investigators continue

0:40:030:40:07

to crack down on those cheating the system.

0:40:070:40:11

Housing fraud for me is like any other crime.

0:40:110:40:14

It needs to be treated as a crime and it makes me in the job I do

0:40:140:40:18

extremely angry.

0:40:180:40:19

I think that they should be kicked out without a hint of anything.

0:40:190:40:23

If you're caught doing something like that,

0:40:230:40:25

you don't deserve to be in social housing. End of story.

0:40:250:40:29

I would say just one unit being misused like that is too much.

0:40:290:40:33

I think it's despicable that somebody can sit on a piece

0:40:330:40:37

of property to which they are not entitled.

0:40:370:40:40

Earlier in Tower Hamlets,

0:40:450:40:47

tenancy cheat Kibria Ahmed was arrested for illegally subletting

0:40:470:40:51

his social housing flat and pocketing thousands of pounds in unlawful profits.

0:40:510:40:57

Now, more than 12 months since his arrest,

0:40:570:41:00

Kibria Ahmed is about to face justice.

0:41:000:41:03

I feel justified in bringing the case to court.

0:41:030:41:07

I think too many people believe social housing fraud is not a big deal

0:41:070:41:12

and it doesn't really matter, but I think we've got to start sending

0:41:120:41:15

that message out that we are taking things seriously.

0:41:150:41:19

On January the 19th 2017,

0:41:190:41:21

30-year-old Kibria Ahmed pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud,

0:41:210:41:25

including unlawful subletting contrary to the

0:41:250:41:28

Prevention of Social Housing Tenancy Fraud Act.

0:41:280:41:32

That's the first criminal case that Poplar Harca have brought

0:41:320:41:35

for tenancy fraud, so it was quite a big case for us.

0:41:350:41:39

Mr Ahmed did his best to avoid our cameras

0:41:390:41:42

but he couldn't avoid justice. He was given a 12 month jail sentence

0:41:420:41:46

suspended two years and was ordered

0:41:460:41:49

to carry out 120 hours unpaid work

0:41:490:41:51

in the community.

0:41:510:41:53

I'm really happy and satisfied with the proceedings today.

0:41:560:42:00

I'm happy with the result we've got for Poplar Harca and getting

0:42:000:42:04

the message out that tenancy fraud is not going to be tolerated.

0:42:040:42:08

We'll tackle it head on and we're going to bring prosecutions

0:42:080:42:12

like this in the future.

0:42:120:42:14

After the hearing, as Mr Ahmed made a run for it,

0:42:140:42:18

not everyone seemed entirely happy with the proceedings.

0:42:180:42:21

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

0:42:210:42:24

As for Shannon and Nayim, the innocent victims who were

0:42:270:42:30

tricked into subletting Mr Ahmed's social housing flat,

0:42:300:42:34

they had no choice but to move out and are now flat hunting again.

0:42:340:42:38

I really miss this place.

0:42:380:42:40

We got engaged there. He proposed to me there.

0:42:400:42:43

On Christmas Day. We've got so many memories in this place.

0:42:430:42:47

Our friends coming round, my family coming here.

0:42:470:42:50

-Yeah, it was...

-It's horrible. It's all just been taken away.

0:42:500:42:54

The house where we've made a home, built up, just gone.

0:42:540:42:58

Everything gone. And now we are back to square one.

0:42:580:43:00

Tenancy fraud is never a victimless crime.

0:43:060:43:09

There's always a financial cost and a very human cost to pay.

0:43:090:43:12

But thanks to the tireless work of housing fraud investigators across

0:43:120:43:16

the UK, those who are cheating the system are being tracked down

0:43:160:43:19

and their properties are being reclaimed and re-let.

0:43:190:43:24

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