Former housing officer at city council jailed for fraud

A former senior housing needs officer at Birmingham City Council has been jailed for three years for fraud.

Zara Danyaal, aged 36, of Warwick Road, Acocks Green, was last week sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court alongside her sister, Samara Malik, aged 28, of Wetherby Road, Acocks Green who was jailed for ten months.

Danyaal’s sentence comprised 30 months’ for one count relating to social housing fraud and six months’ for two offences relating to job references.

The sentence for Malik, who was not a council employee, comprised one count related to social housing fraud.

The prosecution was brought after a council officer in 2014 identified concerns about Danyaal’s role in the homeless application process. Danyaal was later suspended and an internal audit investigation was launched.

This found that the concerns were justified. Danyaal was discovered to have processed six fraudulent homeless applications between 2011 and 2013, three of which resulted in tenancies being awarded.

The investigation found that Danyaal had carried out the frauds using fabricated identities and personal information relating to her and her mother.

The audit investigation concluded that Danyaal may have committed a criminal act and had fundamentally breached the council’s staff Code of Conduct. She was dismissed from the city council following disciplinary proceedings.

Cllr Peter Griffiths, Birmingham’s cabinet member for Housing and Homes, said: “We welcome [this] sentence which recognises the severity of the crime committed.

“Danyaal committed an act of fraud and in so doing also prevented several families from being housed. Birmingham City Council has been proactive from the start in pursuing and bringing the perpetrators of this fraud to justice.  Furthermore, all the properties obtained by the deception have now been recovered so that they can be let to citizens who are in genuine need of social housing.”

Cllr Griffiths added: “Birmingham City Council is committed to protecting the public funds it is entrusted with.  In these times of austerity, the minimisation of losses to fraud and corruption is even more important to ensure that resources are used to provide essential services for citizens.

“Our counter fraud team uses sophisticated data analysis to detect fraud and anyone who commits, or attempts to commit, fraudulent or corrupt acts against the council will be held to account in a decisive manner.”