A man who fraudulently obtained a council flat in Jessel House, a red-brick mansion block on Page Street in Pimlico, just a 15-minute walk from Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, has been ordered to repay nearly £500,000 after illegally subletting the property for £650 a month while living with his wife in Enfield. Saeed Yasin Hosseini was handed the one-bedroom flat in 2011 after misleading Westminster City Council about his circumstances, a town hall investigation found, before later buying the property under the Right to Buy scheme with a £100,000 discount. Following his conviction for three counts of fraud in 2023, the council pursued Proceeds of Crime proceedings, which concluded at Southwark Crown Court this month with Hosseini ordered to pay £494,415 within three months. He also pleaded guilty to contempt of court for dispersing funds across seven bank and credit card accounts in breach of a 2020 restraint order, receiving a seven-month and two-week prison sentence, suspended for one year.
Cllr Caroline Sargent, Cabinet Member for Enforcement, said: "This is a truly shocking case of someone deliberately and repeatedly cheating the system for their own personal gain... I commend the work of our Anti-Fraud service for securing this prosecution and hope the harsh penalties will send a clear message that we will not tolerate people abusing the system." The case forms part of a wider crackdown by the council's Corporate Anti-Fraud Service, which identified more than £1 million of fraud over the past 12 months, including a separate case last year in which a council tenant was found renting out their Soho flat on Airbnb while secretly living in France. Tenancy, housing and Right to Buy fraud was the most common category identified, with 182 live cases, followed by parking and blue badge fraud with 116 live cases.
Tenant who illegally rented out council flat near Buckingham Palace ordered to repay nearly £500,000
Councillor Caroline Sargent, cabinet member for enforcement, said:
“This is a truly shocking case of someone deliberately and repeatedly cheating the system for their own personal gain.
"Council accommodation is a vital resource, intended to provide safe and secure homes for people who genuinely need them.
“Not only did this individual go to great lengths to defraud council resources and taxpayers’ money, but he also ignored previous orders by the court.
“I commend the work of our Anti-Fraud service for securing this prosecution and hope the harsh penalties will send a clear message that we will not tolerate people abusing the system.”
You can read Rachael Burford's article in The Standard in full here.
