London borough prosecutes former tenant for subletting and Right to Buy fraud

A former tenant of Camden Council this month pleaded guilty to illegal subletting and fraudulently applying for a Right to Buy.

Ryan Cooper, 36, of Cobb Green, Watford, had been the council tenant in a one-bedroom flat in Casterbridge House, Abbey Road, since 2001.

He applied to purchase the property under the Right to Buy Scheme in 2018.

It was discovered by Camden that he had vacated the flat several years earlier and had been subletting the property while he was living in Watford with his wife and child.

Possession action was initiated and Cooper returned the keys for the Abbey Road flat shortly thereafter.

Camden said that through his subletting the defendant had made an excess of £36,000 in profit.

The local authority said that Cooper had also attempted to de-fraud it by fraudulently applying to purchase the property under the Right to Buy scheme by claiming that he was living in the property. Had he been successful, he would have enjoyed the maximum discount of £108,000, the council said.

Cooper was sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court on 8 November 2018 to a 16-month suspended sentence along with 200 hours’ community service.

He was also ordered to pay back the illegal profits he made through subletting and £2,925 towards the council’s prosecutions costs.

Cllr Meric Apak, Cabinet Member for Better Homes at Camden, said: “We have a national housing crisis and as a result hundreds of people in Camden needing council housing or living in overcrowded accommodation. Fraud like this deprives one of our families in desperate need of a stable council home. We will take action wherever necessary to ensure our council flats are used as the homes they are intended to be.”