Tenant who illegally rented out council flat near Buckingham Palace ordered to repay nearly £500,000

Tenant who illegally rented out council flat near Buckingham Palace ordered to repay almost £500, 000 Saeed Yasin Hosseini was handed the flat in a Pimlico red-brick mansion block after misleading Westminster City Council concerning his circumstances.

Key points

• They concluded at Southwark Crown Court this month and Hosseini was ordered to pay £494, 415 within the next three months.
• Hosseini afterwards purchased the Pimlico property under the Right to Purchase scheme, receiving a £100, 000 discount on the sale.
• Councillor Caroline Sargent, cabinet member for enforcement, remarked: This is a truly shocking case of someone deliberately and repeatedly cheating the system for their own personal gain.
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• Not only did this individual go to great lengths to defraud council resources and taxpayers' funds, but he additionally ignored previous orders by the court.

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For context, a man who fraudulently obtained a council flat near Buckingham Palace has been ordered to pay back almost £500, 000 after illegally renting it out while living with his wife in north London.

Saeed Yasin Hosseini was handed the one-bedroom property in Jessel House, Page Street in 2011 when he mislead Westminster City Council regarding his circumstances, a town hall investigation identified.

When in fact he was living with his wife in a property she owned in Enfield, he had asserted he was a single man staying in his parents' temporary accommodation.

Between 2013 and 2014 he was illegally subletting the flat in the red-brick mansion block just a 15 minute walk from Buckingham Palace and near Westminster Abbey for £650-a-month.

Hosseini afterwards purchased the Pimlico property under the Right to Purchase scheme, receiving a £100, 000 discount on the sale. Jessel House in Page Street, Pimlico.

After his conviction for three counts of fraud in 2023, Westminster City council rolled out Proceeds of Crime proceedings against Hosseini to recoup some of the cash he had created.

He additionally pleaded guilty to contempt of court after dispersing funds from seven bank and credit card accounts, in breach of a restraint order issued by the court in 2020, and received a seven months and two weeks sentence suspended for one year.

Councillor Caroline Sargent, cabinet member for enforcement, remarked: 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 individuals who genuinely need them.

For now, tenant who illegally rented out council flat near Buckingham Palace ordered to remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.