Council Tenant Ordered To Repay Nearly £500,000 After Housing Fraud
A man who fraudulently obtained a council flat in central London has been ordered to repay nearly £500,000 after an investigation found he had misled the local authority and illegally rented out the property.
Saeed Yasin Hosseini was allocated the one bedroom property at Jessel House on Page Street in Pimlico in 2011. He had told Westminster City Council that he was a single man living in his parents' temporary accommodation.
The council later discovered that Hosseini was actually living with his wife at a property she owned in Enfield. The investigation established that the circumstances he had presented when applying for the council property were not accurate.
The flat was subsequently illegally sublet between 2013 and 2014 for £650 a month. The property is situated in a red brick mansion block approximately 15 minutes' walk from Buckingham Palace and close to Westminster Abbey.
Hosseini later purchased the Pimlico property through the Right to Buy scheme. The purchase included a discount of £100,000, increasing the financial benefit he obtained from the council property.
He was convicted in 2023 of three counts of fraud following the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the council tenancy. Westminster City Council subsequently began Proceeds of Crime proceedings in an effort to recover money connected with his offending.
Those proceedings concluded at Southwark Crown Court this month, with the court ordering Hosseini to pay £494,415. He has been given three months to make the payment required under the order.
The court also dealt with a separate matter involving Hosseini's finances. He pleaded guilty to contempt of court after transferring funds from seven bank and credit card accounts in breach of a restraint order that had been imposed in 2020.
Hosseini received a sentence of seven months and two weeks for the contempt offence. The sentence was suspended for one year, meaning he will not immediately serve the custodial term provided he complies with the conditions attached to the suspended sentence.
Westminster City Council's cabinet member for enforcement, Councillor Caroline Sargent, described the case as a serious example of deliberate abuse of the housing system. She said council accommodation is intended for people who genuinely require secure housing.
The council said its Corporate Anti Fraud Service had continued to increase investigations into housing and tenancy fraud. The authority identified more than £1 million of fraud during the 12 month period covered by its latest figures.
Housing, tenancy and Right to Buy fraud accounted for the largest category of cases recorded by the council. There were 182 live cases under investigation, while parking and Blue Badge fraud accounted for a further 116 live cases.
The council said its enforcement work was aimed at protecting public resources and ensuring council homes were available to residents who meet the requirements for social housing. The latest case demonstrates the financial consequences that can follow when council accommodation is obtained through deception and subsequently misused.
The case also involved the misuse of court ordered restrictions after Hosseini moved funds from accounts subject to a restraint order. The additional contempt proceedings resulted in a separate suspended sentence alongside the financial order made under the Proceeds of Crime legislation.
Westminster City Council has said it will continue investigating suspected housing fraud as part of efforts to protect its housing stock and public finances. The authority's latest figures indicate that tenancy related fraud remains a significant area of enforcement activity.
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