16th
Feb 2015
A tenant attempted to con a council when trying to purchase a property and saying he was entitled to a massive discount of £100,000.
Lambeth Council’s case against the tenant was heard at Blackfriars Crown Court and he was “slapped” with a fine of nearly eleven thousand pounds ( £10,921) and eighty hours unpaid community work to be completed. The tenant was found guilty of lying on a Right to Buy application.
Earlier last year his application was sent to Lambeth Council’s Fraud Team when he attempted to buy one of the council’s properties under the Right to Buy scheme. It was also suspected that he had been illegally sub letting the property.
Through the team’s investigations, it was found out that the attempted fraudster was living in a separate property in Romford with his wife. In the application he stated that he lived in the property that he wanted to purchase, claiming he was entitled to the massive £100,000 discount.
The claim was turned down, he was told to leave the property and give up his tenancy in Lambeth.
Lambeth’s Cabinet member for Housing, Councillor Mark Bennett believes that the sentence will send out a stark warning to anyone else thinking of trying to pull off a similar con.
Bennett said: “This property could have been used to house a family, not to line the pockets of a crook like Enobakhare. Not content with making money out of subletting the property illegally, he wanted to get £100,000 discount on buying the house.
“I hope this send a very clear message to people who think they can get away with this sort of appalling behaviour.”
The tenant was found guilty of two counts of fraud, he failed to tell the council that he was not residing in the property that he was trying to purchase. The second was for supplying false information when claiming his Right to Buy scheme’s massive discount.
Councillor Bennett finished by applauding the council’s actions: “This is another excellent example of the work of Lambeth’s Fraud Team and underlines the council’s commitment to come down hard on cheats and frauds.”
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