industry news


HA computer fraudster jailed for five years


A computer analyst has been jailed for five years after trying to steal almost £430,000 from a London housing association Adeshola Dada, 51, of Watts Crescent


Purfleet, Thurrock, stole more than £138,000 from Genesis HA with the help of three associates. He also hijacked the identities of colleagues at Genesis to make a series of illegal transfers to his fellow fraudsters. The money was meant to be paid to the


association’s in-house contractor, Pathmeads Property Services for maintenance work. The first fraudulent payment was discovered by the association’s internal auditors during checks they made. Then staff at Barclays Bank managed to stop a further £290,090 being stolen from Genesis by Dada.


Investigation


The judge, Recorder Cheryl Jones sentencing Dada at Southwark Crown Court said: “Placing your own employees under suspicion is a very uncomfortable position for an employer to find themselves in.” Dada was found guilty of two counts of fraud. Ansar Ali, 43, of Limehouse Causeway,


Tower Hamlets, Danielle Brown, 24, of Benworth Street, Tower Hamlets, and James McMasters, 24, of The Heights, Northolt, Middlesex, received suspended sentences for helping Dada hide the cash. Brown and McMasters were found guilty of acquiring criminal property while Ali pleaded guilty to the same offence. An internal investigation found that


details of a former senior surveyor were used to gain access to computer based payment systems. The surveyor had left the 34,000 home landlord in June 2011 and was not involved in the scam in any way.


Homelessness bill passes crucial second reading


D


raft legislation which can reform England's homelessness laws passed its second reading in Parliament on


Friday 28 October. The Homelessness Reduction Bill saw


unanimous support in the Commons and will now go forward for detailed examination, but some MPs warned councils would have to receive additional funding for their new duties. The legislation, tabled by Conservative MP


Bob Blackman, will alter the Housing Act 1996 and require councils to support people at risk of becoming homeless within 56 days to find accommodation. It will extend the current period of 28 days


to allow people more time to seek help from the local authority.


‘National disgrace’


During his speech in the Commons, Bob Blackman MP criticised the way homelessness is currently being handled by the authorities. He said: “The non-priority homeless are


told to go out and sleep on the streets, on a park bench, or in a doorway, and then they may –may – be picked up by a charity under the No Second Night Out programme. “That is an absolute national disgrace.


When employment is at the highest level ever and we have a relatively low level of unemployment, having one single person sleeping rough on our streets is a national disgrace that we must combat.”


Funding


Despite backing the Bill without a single vote against, some MPs warned that councils’ new duties would have to be adequately funded.


24 | HMM November 2016 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


Shadow housing secretary John Healey commented: “If the Government are serious about this Bill, and if Ministers mean what they say about homelessness, they must do two things: fund the cost of the extra duties in the Bill in full, and tackle the causes of the growing homelessness crisis in this country. Those are the two tests with which we Opposition Members will hold the Government to account, hard.”


“The legislation, tabled by Conservative MP Bob Blackman, will alter the Housing Act 1996 and require councils to support people at risk of becoming homeless within 56 days to find accommodation”


Former Housing Minister Mike Prisk also


called for additional funding, while Labour Co-operative MP for Ilford South, Mike Gapes, attacked the legislation as “wishful thinking" and suggested that it would not result in the additional homes needed. Mr Gapes commented: “This Bill,


unfortunately, is a classic piece of wishful thinking. It is gesture politics of the worst kind in that it wills the ends but does not provide the means. It is about feeling good about voting for something that sounds good, having been pressed to do so by pressure groups and campaigns.”


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