‘A FAMILY AFFAIR’

In 2004, Redbridge Council Housing Benefit Fraud Department identified a family who had been making fraudulent housing benefit and council tax claims over a period of several years for three different properties in the Redbridge and Waltham Forest area in which they lived.

Husband and wife, Mohammed and Safia Inayat, her sister Razia Inayat and Zeba Mirza, their sister in law submitted the claims. Those claims were fraudulent as Safia already owned a property outright that was rented to Razia, her husband and sister Razia jointly owned the house rented by Zeba Mirza and Safia, Razia and Zeba held an interest in other properties with other members of their family. The defendants failed to notify the council’s concerned of their property interests when submitting their claims. In the case of Mohammed, Safia and Zeba, they also failed to inform the council that they resided in properties owned by relatives of the same family. Had they done so it would have triggered further enquiries that would have had a detrimental effect on those claims. In order to disguise their ownership, they used a combination of their married and maiden names for their claims or for their property ownership.

It was due to these benefit payments that the three houses could be purchased as the mortgages were actually being paid with illegitimate gains. This proved to be a complex case as the value of the benefits obtained stood at £93,000 but due to the huge increase in property prices over the last decade, the value of the properties was substantially larger as the majority of the money received had been used to pay the mortgages on the properties concerned.

Having obtained a guilty plea, it was at this point that Redbridge enlisted the assistance of the London RART to ensure that the fraudsters and their extended family did not benefit from their false claims. London RART proved that the family members actually owned several properties and identified the equity in the houses which they stood to gain from any future sale.

The investigation carried out by the RART resulted in a confiscation order for nearly half a million pounds all together which they were forced to reluctantly admit, they were able to pay between them! The order must be satisfied by March 2007 or they will each have to serve a full two and a half year custodial sentence.