Former Islington Council tenant ordered to pay back £260,000 in Right to Buy fraud case

The local authority said that as demand for council homes vastly outstrips the number of properties available, Mr Deb’s actions deprived others on the social housing waiting list of a place to call home. 

Mr Deb had previously been given a suspended sentence of two years, plus 30 rehabilitative activity days and 250 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to four counts of fraud at Snaresbrook Crown Court in December 2022. 

Islington Council was then able to recover the money by pursuing financial recompense under the Proceeds of Crime Act and was awarded what is believed to be one of the largest figures granted to a council in a case of housing fraud.  

Mr Deb was subsequently ordered to pay back £242,705 plus £18,000 in costs at Snaresbrook Crown Court earlier this month.

Una O’Halloran, executive member for homes and neighbourhoods at Islington Council, said: “Council homes change lives, and we will not tolerate any activity that deprives people in genuine need of a safe, decent and affordable place to call home.

“Our housing investigations team work tirelessly to deliver results like this and will always take action against the small minority of people who try to cheat the system, to make sure council homes are going to people who really need them.

“At a time when people in Islington, like all London boroughs, are facing a housing crisis and there is huge demand for council homes, this is an excellent result for our residents.”

In the past six months, the council’s housing investigation team has already recovered 36 properties that were being fraudulently let, which will now be offered to people in genuine need.

Earlier this year, L&Q revealed it had recovered 143 homes over the past year as the association tackled property misuse.

Nationally, it is estimated that every property subject to tenancy fraud costs the public purse £42,000.

In May, a non-executive director at the Tenancy Fraud Forum accused the English regulator of “turning a wilful blind eye” to tenancy fraud and said it has “lost sight of the real victims”.

Alan Bryce, former head of counter-fraud at the Audit Commission, called on the Regulator of Social Housing to acknowledge the true extent of tenancy fraud and take the issue seriously.

In response, a spokesperson for the regulator said: “We take the issue of tenancy fraud seriously, and landlords must act on their responsibility to detect and manage it.

“We set standards that landlords need to deliver. They must have robust processes in place for tenancy fraud and actively tackle the issue. A significant case of fraud may impact on their ability to meet our standards, and in these cases we take appropriate action in line with our remit.”