Barrister jailed for falsely claiming council housing tenancy

A barrister and law lecturer has been sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment after falsely claiming a council housing tenancy.

Nadine Wilson-Ellis, who taught full-time at a higher education college in Nottingham, was awarded a tenancy for a maisonette by Bristol City Council in November 2009.

The defendant claimed to be living in the city and to have no income, savings or property.

However, she earned £30,000 a year and owned two houses in Nottingham. One of those properties was an ex-council house she bought through the Right to Buy scheme.

According to the council, the fraud only came to light when Wilson-Ellis applied in 2011 for a larger council house as she had two children. She claimed at that time to be earning £18,000 per annum.

An investigation was launched after the council found that some of the documents provided had been doctored. It was then discovered that she had been subletting the property for around £100 a week.

The defendant was sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment at Bristol Crown Court after being found guilty of fraud.

Judge Michael Longman was satisfied that the custody threshold had been passed and said he had reduced the sentence because of Wilson-Ellis’ family commitments. There was no reduction for a guilty plea.

The judge added that he had taken into account the fact that the defendant had lost her job, the impact of the sentence and the low risk of her re-offending. However, he said a clear message needed to be sent to those considering committing this type of fraud.

Cllr Geoff Gollop, Assistant Mayor with responsibility for Finance and Corporate Services with Bristol City Council, said: “I welcome the sentence handed down at Bristol Crown Court which underlines the gravity of the offence.

“Social housing is a vital resource which is heavily sought after and which should only be allocated to those who are in genuine need. This was a truly shocking abuse of the system by someone who was motivated purely by greed, rather than need.”

Cllr Gollop added: “What is worse is that she had subsequently applied to us for a larger property and could, in due course, have bought it from the council at a heavily discounted rate under the Right to Buy scheme, permanently removing from our housing stock a much sought after family home.”