Camden tenant evicted over 'deceitful abuse of the housing list'

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

A Camden tenant has been evicted from his council home after a court ruled he had obtained the property by deception.

Judge Cryan, siting at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court, said that Mr Benjamin Juma had stolen "a march over the honest parties waiting quietly and decently their turn” in the housing list to gain his two-bed home in King's Cross.

He found that there had been “a deceitful abuse of the housing list”.

The home is the latest in a total of more than a hundred over the past year to be returned to Camden Council for use by people in housing need.

At the hearing, evidence was heard from Camden Council, Mr Juma, his brother, sister and father.

Mr Juma applied for family-sized housing for himself, partner and children, as his partner was pregnant with their second child.  Mr Juma then failed to inform Camden of his change in circumstances when he entered into the tenancy on 24 November 2008.  Mr Juma’s relationship with his partner had ended and she had obtained a council house in Barnet by applying to Islington Council a few months earlier. This had not been declared to Camden.

Mr Juma argued that he did not know about the Barnet property but parking tickets produced  from Barnet Council  revealed that Mr Juma’s Mercedes car had been parked five times on double yellow lines in the same street as the Barnet property he claimed not to know about.

Despite Mr Juma attempting to claim that his partner’s mother was driving the car, the Judge said that his account was implausible.  He said that the only explanation was that Mr Juma was driving the car and that he knew about the tenancy in Barnet and that his partner and children would not be living with him.

Camden’s Cabinet member for Housing, Councillor Julian Fulbrook, said: “This is a victory not just for Camden Council, but for all our honest tenants and those waiting for a Camden Council home.

“With more than 100 properties returned to Camden in the last year we can help more people who need and deserve homes.

“We will continue to leave no stone unturned in our search for those who try to cheat our housing system.”