In the last 12 months tenancy fraud has accounted for over 80 per cent of savings recovered by a West London council’s counter fraud team.
In Hillingdon, the “extortionate” costs of housing and tenancy fraud has led to over £8.9 million being recovered by the council. This can include unlawful tenancy successions, subletting a council house, and fraudulently applying for or obtaining a council tenancy.
Last year alone, the counter fraud unit at Hillingdon Council recovered £10.9 million from fraudulent activities. Tenancy fraud accounted for approximately 82 per cent of this.
Laura Piggott, Counter Fraud Manager for the council, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service [LDRS] that there has been an increase in fraud across the board. She said: “I would say there is more, there is an increase in fraud.
“It doesn’t seem to be going away. I’ve done this job now for about 10 years, and usually you see it go up and down, it’s a bit like the low hanging fruit, that’s the kind of technology we use…
“At the moment, I just feel like we’ve been at the low hanging fruit since covid, it’s not drying up, if anything, I’m not running out of work.”
In the 2024/2025 financial year, the council’s counter fraud team saw an eight per cent increase in properties recovered compared to the year prior. This led to 112 council properties being taken back by the council.
Just last month, a woman was given a suspended custodial sentence and ordered to pay Hillingdon Council more than £6,300 after a council investigation found she submitted a fraudulent housing application, despite having a permanent address outside of the borough.
Amira Issa, 41, of Tustin Estate, Southwark, was found guilty at Ealing Magistrates Court on Friday, June 6, for two offences under the Fraud Act 2006. In February 2021, Issa submitted a housing application to the council where she stated that she was living in a housing association property in Yiewsley since 2009, but it had become overcrowded.
She then applied for council housing under this premise, and during a review of her application, it was found she had links to a Southwark address. At no point did she tell the council that her living situation had changed, nor that she had been residing away from the Hayes property for some time.
When submitting a housing application, providing false information is an attempt to obtain services or property through deception and as such is classified as fraud. In sentencing, Issa’s defence stated that she was not motivated by personal gain, instead she had been trying to help her ex obtain a tenancy after he failed initial checks.
However, magistrates took into account the cost incurred by Hillingdon taxpayers for the investigation, as well as the sustained dishonesty for a considerable period, ruling that she intentionally misled the authority. Laura Piggot told the LDRS that its important people are aware of the seriousness of housing fraud.
Speaking about a key amnesty scheme, whereby residents in council properties who no longer require or are eligible for the tenancy can hand over keys, she said: “We go down the route of educating and showing how serious tenancy fraud is, I don’t think the public understand how serious a crime tenancy fraud can be.”
Laura described the cost of tenancy fraud to the Hillingdon council taxpayer as extortionate. She added: “We’ve got a huge amount of people in emergency accommodation… for every property we get back, that means one of them genuine families coming through gets housed.”
For each property recovered, the council saves around £70,000. However, the cost of the tenancy alone doesn’t tell the full story.
For every day someone is unlawfully living in a council home, the local authority is paying huge amounts to house families who do need a council home in B’n’Bs, due to the shortage of council homes – something which incurs a large cost.
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