A tenant who lived in council housing in Dudley while renting out a flat she owned has been jailed for 32 months.
Suzanne Fox, formerly known as Suzanne Lines, lived in council housing for nearly 10 years before her fraud came to light, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council said.
She made three dishonest applications for social housing in five years between 2010 and 2015 – two of which were successful – while renting out her own flat.
The 48-year-old had initially denied six fraud offences but later changed her pleas to guilty.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that Fox submitted a successful application to Dudley Council for a one-bedroom flat in 2010, two years after buying the property in West Bromwich.
In 2011 she made another application for a two-bedroom house in Byron Street, Pensnett. The bid to move was also approved, the court was told, with a third application in 2015 to upgrade again to a bigger property rejected.
Fox was asked to fill out forms on each of the three applications which carried a question asking would-be tenants if they owned another property. She answered ‘no’ on all three occasions, the court heard.
Council housing chiefs estimated the total loss to the authority as a result of the fraud combined with the financial gain made by Fox totalled just under £200,000.
This included more than £4,200 of adaptations paid for by the council to create a wet room at the property.
Cllr Laura Taylor-Childs, Dudley’s cabinet member for housing and communities, said: ‘We are delighted with the verdict from the judge, which sends out a strong message that housing fraud of this nature will result in the strongest possible punishment and time behind bars.’
