Met police make arrest in council housing fraud

On Monday 1 June 2015, the Evening Standard reported on page 22 that, following claims of fraudulent activity by employees of a council-affiliated housing organisation, the Metropolitan Police had begun a formal investigation and arrested one employee in connection with the housing fraud claims.

The council reportedly began its own review of the incidents last year and suspended five employees suspected of taking bribes and gifts from contractors in return for work that was never carried out. The employees allegedly accepted gifts ranging from holidays to football tickets in allocating contracts for repair and upgrade works to the contractor Lakehouse, as part of the council’s “£184 million Decent Homes Scheme to upgrade properties with new kitchens, bathrooms and windows”. The work was reportedly never carried out by the contractors.

It is also reported that, in a separate allegation of fraud uncovered by the council concerning the “management of contractors and contracts”, a man in his thirties was arrested in January 2015 and released on bail after the matter was passed to the Metropolitan Police. This matter is understood to be unrelated to the bribery allegations involving Lakehouse. Further separate fraud investigations by the council are also ongoing after a whistle-blower made startling claims to Mayor Jules Pipe that “three senior employees and a relative had abused taxpayers’ funds and committed fraud”.

Unsurprisingly, the serious nature of the alleged abuse by employees of the council’s affiliated housing organisation has put a considerable number of tenants at a distinct disadvantage and under a huge amount of strain over essential, outstanding repairs to their homes.