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I'm Michelle Ackerley. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:05 | |
My parents both grew up on council estates and as a family, | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
we understand the difference social housing can make to people's lives. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
Millions of families across the UK are struggling to find affordable housing. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:18 | |
So this is my front room and my bedroom together. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
Many are living in temporary or overcrowded conditions, | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
desperate for somewhere decent to live. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
This is our room where we sleep and this is what we've got at the minute. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
We can't really call it our home. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
But some social housing tenants are abusing the system, | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
holding on to properties they no longer need. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:38 | |
When somebody applies for housing, | 0:00:38 | 0:00:39 | |
you expect them to live in a property and when they don't, | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
it does start to take the mickey. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:44 | |
Or even worse, making a small fortune by illegally subletting them. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
He's charging beyond £1,500 a month. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
He exploited this completely to his advantage. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
So I'm with housing investigators cracking down on tenancy cheats... | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
-What a waste. -If you want to commit tenancy fraud, | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
don't bother coming here. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:04 | |
..reclaiming properties... | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
I need to speak to you, please. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
They've seen an opportunity and they think they're not going to get caught. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
..and giving them to families in genuine need. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
That's how a council house should be. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
It should be loved and looked after. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
This is a Council House Crackdown. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
Today... | 0:01:26 | 0:01:27 | |
the fake council cleaner who over 14 years brazenly swindled hundreds of | 0:01:27 | 0:01:32 | |
thousands of pounds from the public purse. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
You'd think she'd want to steer away from the council rather than be | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
-working within the building. -Exactly. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
Investigators unravel an illegal subletter's lies... | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
There you can see a handbag there and girl's pyjamas. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
There was nothing in that flat belonging to Mr Raji. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:54 | |
Nothing at all. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
..revealing an astonishing double life. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
This is an individual who is mixing with Premiership footballers | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
who's, you know, got a very well-paid job. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
The arrogance of that, really, is the galling part. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:10 | |
And subtenants help a fraud team bring down an illegal landlord. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:15 | |
Yeah, we're home now, so if you want, you can come around. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
-I need to speak to you, please. -Can you open the door, please, sir? | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
Social housing is intended to go to those most in need. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:31 | |
It provides struggling families and individuals with a stable home | 0:02:31 | 0:02:36 | |
and subsidised rent well below the market value, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
but for unscrupulous social tenants, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:41 | |
subletting their home and charging at or near the normal market rate | 0:02:41 | 0:02:45 | |
provides a lucrative but unlawful income. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
Our first case involves this man - Adio Raji, | 0:02:50 | 0:02:54 | |
a fully qualified goalkeeping coach, | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
working at some of London's top football clubs and leading a lifestyle | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
that would be the envy of any football fan. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
This is an individual who's mixing the Premiership footballers, | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
who's got a very well-paid job and making a profit out of this flat. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:14 | |
You know, the arrogance of that, really, is the galling part. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:20 | |
It all started here in this block of flats right next door to | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
Charlton Athletic Football Club in south-east London. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
Back in 1995, Mr Raji, a single young man, | 0:03:33 | 0:03:38 | |
who enjoyed his football and was in need of housing, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
was allocated a flat on the 12th floor. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
To Greenwich counter fraud manager Nigel Brown and his colleagues, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
this tenancy seemed like a perfect match. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
As you can see, we're right next to and overlooking the Charlton football ground. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
This is a really desirable place to live and this is where Mr Raji | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
had his one-bedroom flat. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:00 | |
Now, if you are into your football, you are really close to the ground, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
you wouldn't even need to pay for a ticket. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
Although Mr Raji's flat was social housing, | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
it was owned and run not by Greenwich Council, | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
but by housing association Charlton Triangle. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
There are over four million social housing properties in the UK. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
More than half of those, 2.3 million, | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
are owned and run by housing associations. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
The rest are council properties. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
Charlton Triangle rent officer Annette and fraud investigator Yasmin | 0:04:35 | 0:04:40 | |
pride themselves on getting to know their tenants and supporting them | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
through difficult times. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
One of their favourite tenants was none other than Mr Raji. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
He used to come into the office and we used to, you know, laugh and joke | 0:04:49 | 0:04:54 | |
with him and everybody got to know him and we all liked him. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
I mean, he had rent arrears. We were trying to sustain the tenancy. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
One of the ways of doing that is helping people get into employment. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
So that was one of the main things we helped him to do. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
But everybody knew him. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
-He was quite a charismatic person, I suppose. -Yes. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:13 | |
Mr Raji eventually got work as a UEFA qualified goalkeeping coach | 0:05:15 | 0:05:19 | |
and during the time he was living in the flat, he worked at several top | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
football clubs, as well as doing jobs such as chauffeuring | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
to top up his income. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
Then, in June 2015, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
fraud investigator Yasmin | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
got a tip-off e-mail from Charlton Triangle's building services team | 0:05:34 | 0:05:38 | |
telling her there appeared to be two women living | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
in Mr Raji's one-bedroom flat. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
Knowing Mr Raji as they did, they were surprised by the information. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:48 | |
And we were like, no, it's a mistake, something's wrong. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
Myself and Annette went down to the property. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
We got to the door and there was a young lady coming out of the lift. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:04 | |
We asked if she lived in the property, she said yes. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
Having been let into the flat, they had a good look around. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
We took some photographs and as you can see, this is a girl's bedroom. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:17 | |
Mauve and pink colours were all round the room. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:21 | |
There was flowers there. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
There you can see a handbag there, girl's pyjamas. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:28 | |
There wasn't so much as a pair of football boots to suggest Mr Raji | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
was living there. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
And this is the other end of the room. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
Mr Raji is 6'4" with no hair at all, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
so there'd be no reason for him to have a hairdryer. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:46 | |
It was starting to look as if Mr Raji had moved out of his | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
social housing property and two young women have moved in. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
This is supposed to be the front room, but had a double bed in it. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
Again, women's things. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
There was no men's products around. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
Their make up, creams... | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
Actually, when I saw this, I did have to laugh. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
It was quite clear-cut he was subletting to these young ladies | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
because there was nothing in that flat belonging to Mr Raji. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:17 | |
Nothing at all. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
The woman at the flat gave them a witness statement there and then, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
saying she and the other subtenant were paying Mr Raji a total | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
of £800 a month in rent - | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
nearly twice the social rent Mr Raji was paying | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
Charlton Triangle. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
She said she'd been staying there for the last 12 months. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
They would pay into his bank account. Then he stopped that | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
and said that he wanted cash only. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
And they said, on the 6th of every month, he would come up to the flat | 0:07:46 | 0:07:51 | |
and take the cash from them. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:53 | |
And apparently he had a key and would let himself in as well. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
So he would just turn up and walk into the flat. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
Yasmin and Annette were shocked. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:02 | |
If the claims of the subtenant were true, their tenant, Mr Raji, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:06 | |
was guilty of tenancy fraud. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
One of those situations where you scratch your head in disbelief. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:14 | |
You think, "No, not Mr Raji. Can't be." But, yes, it was. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:19 | |
They invited him to come into the office for an interview. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:24 | |
He denied subletting his one-bedroom flat, | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
claiming the woman was an ex-partner who was staying there rent free. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
And we were kind of like, "Where do you sleep?" | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
-And he said the hallway. -He said he slept in the hallway. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
We got him to sign some paperwork saying that | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
was his only home, his only principal home, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
that he was not living anywhere else. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
But his story didn't ring true. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
He said that we were his friends. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
-Yes. -That's the bit that made me laugh. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
That, you know, we were his best friends, almost. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
And he wouldn't do anything to hurt us. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
With Mr Raji denying everything, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
Yasmin and Annette needed hard evidence. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
So they called in the Royal Borough of Greenwich fraud team | 0:09:09 | 0:09:12 | |
led by experienced investigator Karen Evans. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
I've dealt with a lot of sublets. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
And often people will deny that they're subletting. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
You don't expect them to do anything else. Often they've been doing it | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
for many years and making a lot of money from it. So they're going to | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
try and cover their tracks. My job is to undo what they're telling me, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:33 | |
to find out what is the truth, | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
to obtain the evidence to prove that, and get them into court, | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
and hopefully get the conviction at the end of the day. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
The Prevention of Social Housing Tenancy Fraud Act 2013 | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
makes unauthorised subletting a criminal offence, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:50 | |
punishable by up to two years in jail or a fine of up to £50,000. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:56 | |
Councils have been given new powers to access personal data | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
such as bank accounts, | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
in order to help them secure evidence of tenancy fraud, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
and prosecute those responsible. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
Later, as Greenwich Council | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
used these new powers to unravel Mr Raji's deception, | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
he reveals his true colours. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
He was lying from the beginning. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
He was blaming somebody else for what he was doing wrong. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
We couldn't believe that Mr Raji would behave in that manner. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
Shocking and upsetting and disappointing, to say the least. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
There are more than 200,000 social housing properties | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
across the West Midlands. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
That's 5% of the UK's entire social housing stock. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
But even so, the pressure on housing here is huge. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
And Birmingham has embarked on a programme to build 2,000 more | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
council properties by 2020. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
In Sandwell, six miles outside Birmingham, | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
there are around 4,000 people on the housing waiting list, | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
many in overcrowded or emergency accommodation. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
Our next case involves this woman, Yvette Logan, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
real name Lillian Wade. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
She shouldn't even be in the UK, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
but for the last 14 years, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
she's been living in a council flat in Sandwell | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
claiming almost £100,000 in benefits and even getting herself a job | 0:11:31 | 0:11:37 | |
at the local council. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
So, let me get this straight, | 0:11:40 | 0:11:41 | |
she had a council property in the name of Yvette Logan, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
passport in the name of Yvette Logan, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
and was working for the council in the name of Yvette Logan. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:52 | |
I find it absolutely shocking. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:53 | |
The story starts here at Gatwick Airport, | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
where Lillian Wade arrived from Jamaica in 1999. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
She was refused entry, but granted temporary admission | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
for just half a day, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
on the condition she flew back the next morning. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
But she absconded. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
And it was to take another 14 years before anyone caught up with her. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:18 | |
I'm in Sandwell to see the council's counter fraud manager Oliver Knight. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:22 | |
So, when she came to us, she'd been in the country for about a year | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
before she approached the council. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
She explained that she was a single person and in need of accommodation. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
And so, what was her application like? | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
It didn't have any alarm bells or anything that you thought...? | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
No, there was nothing untoward. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
Nothing that really looked like anything was suspicious. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
By now, Lillian Wade had a whole new identity. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:44 | |
She called herself Yvette Logan. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
Aged 55, she had a UK passport in that name, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
and a national insurance number also in that name. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
Her housing application was successful. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
As a single woman in need of somewhere to live, | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
she was allocated a council flat. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
But her next move was even more brazen. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
As well as applying for a council property, she also came to us | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
in about 2000 and applied for a job and was given a position | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
as a cleaner. And worked there for about four or five years. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:16 | |
So, let me get this straight, | 0:13:16 | 0:13:17 | |
she had a council property in the name of Yvette Logan, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
a passport in the name of Yvette Logan, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
and was working for the council in the name of Yvette Logan. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:28 | |
I find it absolutely shocking. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
Just the cheek of it. How did she get away with it? | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
In all honestly, I don't know. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:35 | |
Even to this day. Obviously, the passport was the trigger. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
And the identification behind that. And, obviously, once she's got that, | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
it makes it a lot easier to get through the checks that we would have in place. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
You'd think she'd want to steer away from the council rather than be working within the building. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
Exactly. You wouldn't have thought for a second that her ideal placement | 0:13:50 | 0:13:54 | |
for work would have been right under the noses of the council. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
And what do your colleagues at Sandwell Council think about this? | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
Well, obviously, it was amazing at the time. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
When we began the investigation, | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
we thought it was just about the council property. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
It was only when we started to look at who she was | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
that we realised she'd actually been employed by us as well. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
In 2005, Yvette Logan resigned from her cleaning job at the council | 0:14:12 | 0:14:17 | |
on medical grounds and started claiming benefits. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
She received housing benefit and council tax benefit, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
as well as other benefits. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:25 | |
Effectively, the council then began to pay her rent for her and she was | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
-living rent-free. -How much money, roughly, in total, did this amount to? | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
In total, she received about £30,000 of benefits, | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
housing benefit and council tax benefit. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:38 | |
She also claimed benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
including incapacity benefit, income support, | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
employment and support allowance | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
and disability living allowance. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
Grand total - nearly £100,000. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:53 | |
And then in 2013 after a routine data matching exercise, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
authorities noticed Yvette Logan was using | 0:14:57 | 0:15:00 | |
someone else's national insurance number | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
and that someone else was also called Yvette Logan. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
And that's when it became clear through the DWP that there wasn't | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
one Yvette Logan, there were two with the same national insurance number. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
It appeared that what she'd been doing is using the national insurance number | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
of a different Yvette Logan elsewhere in the country. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
The real Yvette Logan was living in London and was completely unaware | 0:15:24 | 0:15:29 | |
her details were being used by someone else. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:33 | |
At first, the authorities assumed there'd been a mix-up and issued | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
Yvette Logan, the one living in Sandwell, | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
with a new national insurance number. But behind the scenes, | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
suspicions had been aroused and an investigation was launched. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:48 | |
How did it eventually get to the point where she came under investigation? | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
Well, in 2014 she was arrested by the Department for Work and Pensions, | 0:15:51 | 0:15:56 | |
along with the police, | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
following an investigation that they'd been conducting. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:00 | |
The fact that she'd got an identity that they didn't believe to be correct | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
and obviously we then looked at the housing application and thought, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
well, this isn't right, she should never have been given the housing | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
application because the information she supplied wasn't correct. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
And I guess it just goes to show that you can't rule anything out | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
cos people will go to extraordinary lengths to get these properties and | 0:16:16 | 0:16:21 | |
literally slipped through the net. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:22 | |
With so many people desperate for social housing, | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
local councils across the UK now have much more rigorous processes | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
in place to ensure social housing goes to people who really need it, | 0:16:31 | 0:16:36 | |
and who are eligible for it. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
We do a lot more in terms of application checkers now, | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
especially anybody coming in from a different country. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
We've got better systems in place to look at the application | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
and the documentation that they're providing, as well as a lot more | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
data matching, so ensuring that the information that's held with | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
the likes of the passport agency and immigration is up-to-date. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:01 | |
On February 24th 2015, | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
Yvette Logan appeared before Wolverhampton Crown Court | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
under her real name, Lillian Wade. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
She admitted gaining a pecuniary advantage by deception by falsely | 0:17:12 | 0:17:17 | |
representing she was a British citizen entitled to work in the UK | 0:17:17 | 0:17:21 | |
and cheating the public revenue. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
She also admitted being in possession of a false identity | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
document with intent. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
Lillian Wade, AKA Yvette Logan, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
was sentenced to four years in jail. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
When released, she will be deported. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
I can imagine when the news came through, you must've felt like | 0:17:41 | 0:17:45 | |
-punching the air. -Yeah, well, obviously, it was a good decision | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
for us and for the Department for Work and Pensions | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
who led the prosecution. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
It was only at that point that she surrendered the tenancy to us. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
Funnily enough, she actually phoned us | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
from prison to indicate that she'd return the property keys and posted | 0:18:00 | 0:18:06 | |
them through the letterbox. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:08 | |
And obviously the fake Yvette Logan is no longer in this property. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
Is someone in it now that actually genuinely needs it? | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
There is, yeah. Following the fact that we got the property back, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
obviously it was cleaned up and it was reallocated to somebody | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
that needed it and they've lived in the property since. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
with soaring property prices, around 20,000 people on the waiting list | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
for social housing and more than 80 families with children | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
registered as homeless. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
But 600 properties have been lost | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
here through Right to Buy applications | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
in the last five years. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
Most of my friends are moving out because of the price | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
of the houses local, especially in this area, Tower Hamlets. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
We definitely need more council and social housing, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
without a shadow of a doubt. I think the whole idea that everybody can | 0:19:05 | 0:19:09 | |
afford to get on the property ladder is nonsense now. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
But I don't know how you do anything | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
about that because most of the places | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
that were council houses have been sold off. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
The housing crisis is hitting hard, | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
so it's inevitable that every time someone cheats the system by holding | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
on to a property they don't need, | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
or by unlawfully subletting it, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
someone else loses out. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
Our next case spans two years and involves this young couple | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
who became innocent victims caught up in a tenancy fraud case | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
involving this man, Kibria Ahmed. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
I was really upset. It was horrible. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
It felt like everything was perfect and then it's just been taken away. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
The story begins here in Tower Hamlets where, in October 2015, | 0:19:55 | 0:20:00 | |
this young couple, Shannon and her boyfriend Nayim, | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
were looking to build a home together. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
We had a look on Gumtree and found this flat. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
It seemed perfect for what we wanted. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
-It was nice. -We arranged to meet up with the landlord. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
We sort of reviewed it and everything seemed OK. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
He seemed legit. And then, yeah, we sort of moved in the following week. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:22 | |
The rent for the one-bedroom flat was £800 per month plus | 0:20:22 | 0:20:26 | |
a £600 deposit. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
They'd been saving up and could just about afford it. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:32 | |
We used to be sharing flats before, sharing houses, | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
and being in rooms with someone else there. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:38 | |
But that was only our place. It looks like it's our home. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:43 | |
As soon as they moved in, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:46 | |
Shannon and Nayim set about turning their flat into a home. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:51 | |
It was just great getting things for the house. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
It felt really good. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
It felt like home. I loved coming home from work and stuff like that. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
-It was brilliant. -Yeah, it was nice. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
Like, having a new home, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:02 | |
you are happy to call someone, to invite someone to come round. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:06 | |
-Yeah, proud. -It was good. -It's our house. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
But unbeknown to Shannon and Nayim, | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
their new home was not a private flat, it was social housing. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
And the tenant, Kibria Ahmed, the man who was supposed to be living there, | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
was unlawfully subletting it. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
Mr Ahmed was allocated the flat | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
back in 2008 by housing association Poplar Harca. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
Following a tip-off that Mr Ahmed wasn't living there, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
Poplar Harca's fraud investigator Avril Drummond | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
decided to investigate. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
On the 3rd of December 2015, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
she called round to the flat hoping to see Mr Ahmed, but instead finding | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
Shannon and Nayim. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:48 | |
It was a police officer and it was this lady. I thought, | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
"What's happened? Maybe something's happened." | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
She sort of said, "I'm the proper landlord." | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
I was a bit like, "No, you're not." So she showed me her ID | 0:21:58 | 0:22:00 | |
and I was like, "OK, maybe you'd better come in." | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
Avril broke the news to them | 0:22:04 | 0:22:05 | |
that the flat was being unlawfully sublet. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
Shannon and Nayim were devastated. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
I was really upset. I mean, it was horrible. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:14 | |
It felt like everything was perfect and then it's just been taken away. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
How can someone do that to innocent people? | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
It really hurt. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:22 | |
I mean, having a house, finally living on my own with a person | 0:22:22 | 0:22:27 | |
that I really wanted to be with and then everything is taken away. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
Avril needed to come face-to-face with her unlawful tenant, | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
so she enlisted the help of Shannon and Nayim. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
She came up with a plan to ask the landlord around to fix a blocked sink. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
Our cameras were filming with Avril and her team when this plan | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
came to fruition on the 9th of December 2015. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
The best scenario would be for | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
this landlord to tell us everything that has been going on, | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
hold his hands up, then we'll take it from there. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
Once round at the flat, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
Avril gives Shannon and Nayim a last minute briefing. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:09 | |
Hello. All right? | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
Yeah, thank you for seeing me again today. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
Obviously, we're now waiting for your landlord to turn up, OK? | 0:23:14 | 0:23:18 | |
So we'll just play it by ear when he gets here. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
We've got the police on stand-by and they are in the locality, as well, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
OK? | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
Nayim calls the man who's posing as his landlord and checks | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
he's on his way. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
Hi, are you all right? | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
Yeah, we are home now, so if you want to come around. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
-All right, thanks, bye. -Next few minutes. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
The man in question is about to arrive. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
I'm going to be in here. He's not going to know who I am. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
I've got my identification badge on me but I'm not going to be | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
-wearing it until he comes in. -Yeah. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
Later, the search for the illegal subletter Kibria Ahmed | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
is stepped up. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:01 | |
I need to speak to you, please. I'm from Poplar Harca. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
Can you open the door, please, sir? | 0:24:04 | 0:24:05 | |
And what happens when he's finally brought to justice. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
INDISTINCT SHOUTING | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
Earlier, UEFA-qualified goalkeeping coach Adio Raji was suspected of | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
illegally subletting his social housing flat. | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
To find out if it was true, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
housing association Charlton Triangle decided to pay him a visit. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:32 | |
There you can see a handbag, girls pyjamas. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
Mr Raji is 6'4" with no hair at all. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:42 | |
So there would be no reason for him to have a hairdryer. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:46 | |
Actually, when I saw this, I did have to laugh. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
It was quite clear-cut he was subletting to these young ladies. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
Cos there was nothing in that flat belonging to Mr Raji. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
Nothing at all. | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
One of the subtenants made a witness statement saying that they | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
were paying Mr Raji £800 a month in rent, | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
but the football coach denied everything. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:08 | |
One of those situations where you scratch your head in disbelief. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:13 | |
You think, "No, not Mr Raji. Can't be." But, yes, it was. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:19 | |
If he really was committing tenancy fraud, they needed hard evidence. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:23 | |
The Royal Borough of Greenwich fraud team was called in, | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
led by investigator Karen Evans. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
Her first step was to re-interview the subtenant | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
who was to prove a key witness. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
She provided Karen with details of the bank accounts | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
she used to pay rent to Mr Raji. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
The evidence that we can obtain from the banks now | 0:25:41 | 0:25:47 | |
is conclusive, so conclusive, such conclusive evidence. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:51 | |
The subtenant told us that she'd used a certain bank account | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
to pay the money into a bank account number. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
We obtained copies of both of those bank accounts, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
which showed the transfer of money from her to him. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
Bank records show the subtenants were making rental payments | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
to Mr Raji of £184 a week. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
That's nearly £800 a month. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
That meant, once he'd paid his social rent, | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
Mr Raji was making a clear profit of £330 a month. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:22 | |
The profit that he'd made for the period that we could prove amounted | 0:26:22 | 0:26:27 | |
to £4,330. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
Mr Raji continued to vehemently deny he was subletting. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
Clearly, the evidence didn't back that up. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
And that's why I wanted to get him in to interview | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
and ask him about the situation, | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
showing the documentation that we'd obtained, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
which quite clearly showed the money being paid from the subtenants | 0:26:45 | 0:26:50 | |
on a regular basis and him very nicely profiting from the situation. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
Mr Raji was invited to attend an interview under caution | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
at Greenwich Council. | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
He came in. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:00 | |
He was represented by a solicitor and, right from the off, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:05 | |
offered no comment to any questions that we wanted to ask him. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
He produced a written statement | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
to us which said, "I've always lived there, | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
"I don't sublet it, I've never taken in a lodger or a subtenant," | 0:27:16 | 0:27:21 | |
and he signs that document as a statement of truth | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
here on the 13th of July 2015. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
Karen's colleague, fellow fraud investigator Clive Parish, | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
was also present at the interview. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
He seemed quite affronted that we were asking him questions at all | 0:27:33 | 0:27:39 | |
and that made him a little different, really, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
to the people that I might normally interview. There was almost | 0:27:42 | 0:27:46 | |
an arrogance about him in the way that he said "No comment," | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
and for somebody like Mr Raji, who put | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
a person into his flat and he charged them a rent, | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
a rent far and above what he was paying for the flat himself, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
is completely wrong and he was making a profit | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
out of his social housing tenancy. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
-Shock and disbelief... -Yeah. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:12 | |
..because we deal with people like this all the time. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 | |
The bottom line is the greed. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:16 | |
-Yeah, it is. -It's the hurtful thing. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
I feel sorry for the people that are caught in the middle of it. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
Charlton Triangle served Mr Raji | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
with a notice to quit and ordered him to hand the keys back. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:30 | |
He still refused to leave, saying this is where he lived, | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
he had nowhere else to go and his landlord took him to court, | 0:28:34 | 0:28:39 | |
civil courts, on a couple of occasions. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
He was represented and he continued | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
to deny that he'd done anything wrong. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
Instead, he contacted the subtenants and told them | 0:28:48 | 0:28:52 | |
that they had to leave. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:54 | |
Within a couple of days, he contacted the occupants of the flat, | 0:28:56 | 0:29:01 | |
he told them that he'd reported the situation to the police, | 0:29:01 | 0:29:05 | |
that they shouldn't be there | 0:29:05 | 0:29:06 | |
and that they have to move out immediately. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
One of the occupants left immediately, never to be seen again. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:13 | |
The other subtenant, | 0:29:13 | 0:29:14 | |
the one who'd given a witness statement against Mr Raji, | 0:29:14 | 0:29:17 | |
was away on holiday. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:18 | |
But that didn't stop him from removing her belongings. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
He came round to this property | 0:29:21 | 0:29:24 | |
whilst the lady that was renting from him was on holiday | 0:29:24 | 0:29:28 | |
and he got all of her stuff and he moved it all out. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
He put all of her belongings and furniture in storage | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
and when she came back from her holiday, | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 | |
she opened the door and all her stuff was gone. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
In fact, I believe she couldn't even get the door open because he changed the locks. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:45 | |
We couldn't believe that Mr Raji would behave in a manner. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:50 | |
That was quite... | 0:29:50 | 0:29:52 | |
shocking and upsetting and disappointing, to say the least. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
I think the reason why the subtenants were ousted out | 0:29:56 | 0:29:59 | |
of the property was so that he could quickly get back in there to make it | 0:29:59 | 0:30:03 | |
look like this is where he lives. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:04 | |
In March 2016, | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
Mr Raji finally agreed to sign forms giving up possession | 0:30:06 | 0:30:10 | |
and return the flat to Charlton Triangle. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
After about a year since we interviewed him, he finally seemed | 0:30:13 | 0:30:17 | |
to come to his senses that this was not going to go away, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:20 | |
that he was not going to get away with it. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:22 | |
By this time, we had got our solicitors involved. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
Myself and another colleague turned up at the flat with the solicitor, | 0:30:25 | 0:30:30 | |
with the consent order to say that he was going to give up his flat | 0:30:30 | 0:30:34 | |
and that he would hand the keys back, but he signed the order | 0:30:34 | 0:30:38 | |
so we got back our one-bedroom property that went | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
to somebody deserving of it. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
But that wasn't the end of the matter. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:48 | |
Because of his deception and the overwhelming evidence, | 0:30:48 | 0:30:51 | |
Greenwich Council decided to proceed with a criminal prosecution. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:55 | |
In December 2016, Mr Raji pleaded guilty to fraud, | 0:30:55 | 0:30:59 | |
unlawful subletting and unlawful eviction. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:03 | |
I think that Mr Raji realised that, you know, it was bang to rights. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:09 | |
The evidence was overwhelming. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:11 | |
The statements that backed it up were all there. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:16 | |
He didn't really have much movement. If we were going to go to trial, | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
he knew he would be in a difficult situation and I think he realised | 0:31:19 | 0:31:24 | |
that he needed to back down and plead and take the rap, basically. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:31 | |
After an investigation lasting nearly two years, | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
Mr Raji was given a 12 month jail sentence, | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
suspended for 18 months, | 0:31:37 | 0:31:39 | |
and was ordered to pay £4,330 | 0:31:39 | 0:31:43 | |
in compensation - | 0:31:43 | 0:31:44 | |
the amount he had made | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
in unlawful profits. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:47 | |
Obviously, you know, it takes a lot of time and effort, but the result | 0:31:52 | 0:31:57 | |
was the right result of the end of the day and we were very satisfied | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
with the outcome. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:02 | |
An opinion shared by head of fraud at Greenwich Council, Nigel Brown. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:06 | |
You could argue should he go to prison, yes or no? | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
At the end of the day, it costs us all money to put Mr Raji in prison, | 0:32:09 | 0:32:12 | |
therefore there is no financial gain out of that. | 0:32:12 | 0:32:14 | |
I think for him to lose £4,500 and to have that | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
now on his record in the future that he's been done for tenancy fraud | 0:32:17 | 0:32:22 | |
is a good thing for all concerned, other than him, obviously. | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
I know how short we are of social housing. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
I know how many people are desperate to find somewhere to live and yet | 0:32:31 | 0:32:35 | |
we've still got tenants making their own allocations policies | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
and deciding who they should be housing and that's not how it works. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:43 | |
That frustrates me and it satisfies me greatly | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
to know that we've got that property back. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:48 | |
Back in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, | 0:32:55 | 0:32:57 | |
Shannon and her boyfriend Nayim thought they'd found a place | 0:32:57 | 0:33:00 | |
to call home but a few months after moving in, | 0:33:00 | 0:33:03 | |
they discovered they'd been conned. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
The flat and they'd been renting was a social housing property | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
and the tenant, Kibria Ahmed, was committing fraud by subletting it. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:14 | |
With their help, fraud investigator Avril Drummond is trying | 0:33:14 | 0:33:18 | |
to track down her tenant. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:19 | |
Hello, thank you for seeing me again today. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
Obviously, we're now waiting for your landlord to turn up, OK? | 0:33:24 | 0:33:28 | |
So we'll just play it by ear when he gets here. | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
We've got the police on stand-by and they are in the locality as well. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
OK? | 0:33:34 | 0:33:36 | |
Eventually, a man turns up. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:42 | |
But it's not Mr Ahmed. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:44 | |
Avril calls the police in and he is arrested, questioned, | 0:33:44 | 0:33:48 | |
but later released without charge. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
The next morning, Avril briefs fellow investigator Mike Frost | 0:33:53 | 0:33:57 | |
about the previous day's events. | 0:33:57 | 0:33:59 | |
We asked him about Mr Ahmed. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:01 | |
He said, as a friend, he was helping Mr Ahmed, but he only | 0:34:01 | 0:34:04 | |
posed as the landlord. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:07 | |
He took the £800 a month and gave it to his friend. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
He said, "I'm not taking any money for myself." | 0:34:10 | 0:34:12 | |
That's kind of him, isn't it? | 0:34:12 | 0:34:14 | |
The rent Kibria Ahmed was paying to Poplar Harca was just £292 a month. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:19 | |
Avril and Mike are more determined than ever to track him down | 0:34:19 | 0:34:23 | |
and bring him to justice. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:25 | |
They get a tip-off that he's in the area and then they spot his car. | 0:34:27 | 0:34:32 | |
"Kibs" as in Kibria. Possibly. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:38 | |
I need to speak to you, please. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
Sorry? I'm from Poplar Harca. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:43 | |
Can you open the door please, sir? | 0:34:45 | 0:34:47 | |
I'm Michael Frost from the fraud investigation team. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
His identity is confirmed. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:55 | |
Avril calls the police and Mr Ahmed, in the hooded coat, | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
is handcuffed and led away for questioning. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
They are searching his vehicle at the moment which he said was a gift | 0:35:03 | 0:35:07 | |
from his mother, so we'll wait and see if they uncover any evidence | 0:35:07 | 0:35:11 | |
from there. | 0:35:11 | 0:35:12 | |
Later, the investigation comes full circle and Mr Ahmed faces his day | 0:35:19 | 0:35:24 | |
in court... | 0:35:24 | 0:35:25 | |
I feel justified in bringing the case to court. Too many people | 0:35:25 | 0:35:29 | |
believe social housing fraud is not a big deal and it doesn't really | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
matter, but now we will bring criminal prosecutions when we | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
deem them necessary. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:38 | |
..and what happens when he feels the full weight of the law. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
The housing crisis is no longer confined to densely populated | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
metropolitan areas of the UK. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:00 | |
Here in the cathedral city of Peterborough, | 0:36:02 | 0:36:04 | |
there are almost 3,000 people on the waiting list, | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
nearly 400 of those are families in desperate need. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
Adrian Chapman is the council's director of adult services and communities. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:17 | |
About a year ago, we were probably advertising about 40 properties | 0:36:17 | 0:36:22 | |
a week that people could apply for. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:24 | |
These days, if we get up to double figures a week, we're doing really well, | 0:36:24 | 0:36:28 | |
so we've got a lot of demand and not enough supply. | 0:36:28 | 0:36:32 | |
In 2015-16, the council spent more | 0:36:32 | 0:36:36 | |
than £1 million putting families in temporary accommodation, | 0:36:36 | 0:36:40 | |
including B&Bs and even the local Travelodge. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:44 | |
We will always accommodate people, albeit temporarily, | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
albeit sometimes in bed-and-breakfast accommodation | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
or, as we're currently having to use, a Travelodge. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:54 | |
There is no need for anybody to not have a roof over their heads. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
We've got some nice chicken soup that grand-mummy made. | 0:36:59 | 0:37:01 | |
Then we've got some milk, haven't we? | 0:37:01 | 0:37:03 | |
We are struggling in here because it is difficult just being one room | 0:37:05 | 0:37:09 | |
with the three of us. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:10 | |
This young family, Joshua, Caroline and 16-month-old Phoebe, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:15 | |
are living in this single room in a hostel on the outskirts | 0:37:15 | 0:37:19 | |
of Peterborough. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:20 | |
This is all we have, basically. This is our room where we sleep. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
This is our room where we do everything with Phoebe. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
There's shared bathrooms, shared kitchen, so it's not ideal, really. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:32 | |
But, I mean, this is what we've got at the minute. | 0:37:32 | 0:37:35 | |
We can't really call it our home, but until we find somewhere | 0:37:35 | 0:37:39 | |
or the council puts us somewhere, this is all we've got, really. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:43 | |
Joshua and Caroline were both in work when their landlord decided | 0:37:43 | 0:37:47 | |
to sell up, ironically so the house could be converted | 0:37:47 | 0:37:51 | |
into temporary accommodation units. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:53 | |
Suddenly, they were homeless. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
People think homeless, they just think of someone on the street selling the Big Issue and people | 0:37:56 | 0:38:01 | |
don't really think that people in B&Bs and hostels are considered | 0:38:01 | 0:38:06 | |
as homeless, but this isn't a home, as you can see. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:09 | |
It's just one room for the three of us. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:12 | |
It's a real struggle at times. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
The shock of being made homeless whilst bringing up a young child | 0:38:15 | 0:38:19 | |
placed a huge stress on this young couple. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:22 | |
They are struggling to come to terms with their new circumstances. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:26 | |
Over here, we've got some cupboard space. | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
It's got some stuff in it. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
And then we've got some of our food down here. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
I think the worst of it is just sort of... | 0:38:34 | 0:38:40 | |
how cramped it is and how little there is, really. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:44 | |
Like, the fact we're having to put most of our stuff under the bed. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
The upheaval has had a huge impact on this young family. | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 | |
Joshua and Caroline have lost their jobs and they now need to get back | 0:38:55 | 0:38:58 | |
into employment as soon as possible. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
But job-hunting without a permanent address is difficult. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:06 | |
I think getting the house is the first step towards | 0:39:06 | 0:39:11 | |
getting our lives back on track, really, cos that's another thing, | 0:39:11 | 0:39:16 | |
like, with the whole temporary accommodation, | 0:39:16 | 0:39:19 | |
it does kind of put your life on hold a little bit. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
The longer you are in here, | 0:39:23 | 0:39:25 | |
the harder it makes it to get back on track. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:28 | |
Since filming, Caroline has managed to get a job in telesales, | 0:39:28 | 0:39:32 | |
but they are still living in temporary accommodation. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
There's definitely been a fair share of our dark moments, I'd say, but I | 0:39:37 | 0:39:42 | |
do feel quite confident that we can only move forward from here, really. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:47 | |
For Phoebe's sake, I just want to get this sorted. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:49 | |
With property prices and private rents at an all-time high, | 0:39:56 | 0:39:59 | |
more families than ever are in desperate need for social housing, | 0:39:59 | 0:40:03 | |
which is why it's so very important housing fraud investigators continue | 0:40:03 | 0:40:07 | |
to crack down on those cheating the system. | 0:40:07 | 0:40:11 | |
Housing fraud for me is like any other crime. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
It needs to be treated as a crime and it makes me in the job I do | 0:40:14 | 0:40:18 | |
extremely angry. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:19 | |
I think that they should be kicked out without a hint of anything. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:23 | |
If you're caught doing something like that, | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
you don't deserve to be in social housing. End of story. | 0:40:25 | 0:40:29 | |
I would say just one unit being misused like that is too much. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:33 | |
I think it's despicable that somebody can sit on a piece | 0:40:33 | 0:40:37 | |
of property to which they are not entitled. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
Earlier in Tower Hamlets, | 0:40:45 | 0:40:47 | |
tenancy cheat Kibria Ahmed was arrested for illegally subletting | 0:40:47 | 0:40:51 | |
his social housing flat and pocketing thousands of pounds in unlawful profits. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:57 | |
Now, more than 12 months since his arrest, | 0:40:57 | 0:41:00 | |
Kibria Ahmed is about to face justice. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:03 | |
I feel justified in bringing the case to court. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:07 | |
I think too many people believe social housing fraud is not a big deal | 0:41:07 | 0:41:12 | |
and it doesn't really matter, but I think we've got to start sending | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
that message out that we are taking things seriously. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
On January the 19th 2017, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
30-year-old Kibria Ahmed pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud, | 0:41:21 | 0:41:25 | |
including unlawful subletting contrary to the | 0:41:25 | 0:41:28 | |
Prevention of Social Housing Tenancy Fraud Act. | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
That's the first criminal case that Poplar Harca have brought | 0:41:32 | 0:41:35 | |
for tenancy fraud, so it was quite a big case for us. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:39 | |
Mr Ahmed did his best to avoid our cameras | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
but he couldn't avoid justice. He was given a 12 month jail sentence | 0:41:42 | 0:41:46 | |
suspended two years and was ordered | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
to carry out 120 hours unpaid work | 0:41:49 | 0:41:51 | |
in the community. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:53 | |
I'm really happy and satisfied with the proceedings today. | 0:41:56 | 0:42:00 | |
I'm happy with the result we've got for Poplar Harca and getting | 0:42:00 | 0:42:04 | |
the message out that tenancy fraud is not going to be tolerated. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:08 | |
We'll tackle it head on and we're going to bring prosecutions | 0:42:08 | 0:42:12 | |
like this in the future. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:14 | |
After the hearing, as Mr Ahmed made a run for it, | 0:42:14 | 0:42:18 | |
not everyone seemed entirely happy with the proceedings. | 0:42:18 | 0:42:21 | |
INDISTINCT SHOUTING | 0:42:21 | 0:42:24 | |
As for Shannon and Nayim, the innocent victims who were | 0:42:27 | 0:42:30 | |
tricked into subletting Mr Ahmed's social housing flat, | 0:42:30 | 0:42:34 | |
they had no choice but to move out and are now flat hunting again. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:38 | |
I really miss this place. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:40 | |
We got engaged there. He proposed to me there. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
On Christmas Day. We've got so many memories in this place. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:47 | |
Our friends coming round, my family coming here. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
-Yeah, it was... -It's horrible. It's all just been taken away. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
The house where we've made a home, built up, just gone. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:58 | |
Everything gone. And now we are back to square one. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:00 | |
Tenancy fraud is never a victimless crime. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:09 | |
There's always a financial cost and a very human cost to pay. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:12 | |
But thanks to the tireless work of housing fraud investigators across | 0:43:12 | 0:43:16 | |
the UK, those who are cheating the system are being tracked down | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
and their properties are being reclaimed and re-let. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:24 |