A Labour MP has gone on trial accused of defrauding a council in east London out of £64,000 by “deliberately and dishonestly” withholding personal information in order to “jump the queue” and get a council flat.
Apsana Begum, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse, was given the flat within four months rather than having to wait the usual three years, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told on Wednesday, 21 July.
Begum, 31, denies fraud related to periods between January 2013 and March 2016, which the London Borough of Tower Hamlets claim they were deprived of £63,928 in rent.
He said her application was based on the fact that “she was living in overcrowded conditions” in her family home.
But Mr Marsland said her personal circumstances changed several times between 2011 and 2016, including a period when she moved out of her family home and lived with her new husband, but she failed to notify the housing department, knowing it would harm her chances of getting a council flat.
Mr Marsland said Begum used to work as a housing adviser with a charity, Tower Hamlets Homes, and would have known exactly when to contact the housing department.
The prosecution will claim she made several fraudulent council house applications, although she will insist they were made without her knowledge by her “controlling” former husband, Ehtashamul Haque, from whom she is now separated.
Begum denies three counts of fraud, and the court heard she “vigorously contests these malicious and false allegations”.
The trial is expected to finish next week.