Landlord jailed for cheating

The controversial property man from The Groves, York, used the names of dead and fictitious people as well as living people's details without their knowledge during three years of illegal housing benefit claims, York Crown Court heard.

He now faces debts and financial claims of more than £100,000 and lives on benefit.

Outside the court, Detective Constable Ian Illingworth, of North Yorkshire Police Fraud Squad, said: "This was a despicable crime where Geoffrey Laverack used people who were down and struggling. He stole benefit to which we all contribute in taxes. He stole from us all."

Jailing him for two-and-a-half years, Judge Paul Hoffman said: "This was a carefully-contrived, long-running housing benefit fraud which necessarily involves public funds.

"You have obtained these public funds by fraud on a substantial scale.

"This was a greedy and unscrupulous thing to do."

Laverack, 52, of Dudley Mews, Dudley Street, The Groves, pleaded guilty to seven charges of deception between September 1995 and his arrest in August 1998 and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Rodney Jameson, prosecuting, said the charges covered a fraud of £43,000. Laverack maintains the figure is £37,000.

The barrister said the landlord owned nine properties and managed or sub-let another seven, mostly in bed-sits. As police closed in he got an employee to destroy incriminating evidence.

For Laverack, David De-Jehan said: "He has lost a lifetime's work."

The landlord had used the benefit money on his business.

The fraud enquiry had led to him facing claims of at least £85,000 "with more to come" and his properties had been sold to family members to meet mortgage loans.

He also had credit card debts of £23,000.

Character referees described Laverack as a caring man.

Alan Hodgson, City of York Council benefits investigation team leader, said it was taking steps to reclaim the money Laverack stole, and praised the close co-operation between the council, police and Benefits Agency that jailed him.

It cost more than £100,000 to bring the landlord to justice.

CHRISTMAS CANCELLED TO CATCH FRAUDSTER

Reporters DAVID WILES and Megi Rychlikova outline how detectives and fraud investigators brought about the fall of York landlord Geoffrey Laverack.

IT took extraordinary measures to catch big-time benefit cheat and controversial landlord Geoffrey Laverack.

On one day alone, dozens of police, benefit agency and council officers descended on a York street to raid four properties and arrest him.

Simultaneously, Housing Benefit officials stopped benefits for more than 100 people living on the breadline, even though they knew their actions could lead to genuine claimants losing their homes.

The whole three-year investigation is believed to be one of the biggest ever mounted in the country against a private landlord.

And the jailing of Laverack does not end it. York Crown Court heard that council officers are continuing action to reclaim the money he pocketed, but which belongs to the citizens of the city.

The exact amount is not known, but is believed to be many tens of thousands of pounds.

"The investigation has closed down an absolute drain on council coffers," said Alan Hodgson, head of the council's benefit fraud investigation squad.

He and four other squad members were so concerned about housing benefit forms submitted on behalf of Laverack's tenants, they worked over the Christmas-New Year holiday period in 1997-1998, scrutinising claims. By early January they had uncovered a "pattern of irregularities," said Mr Hodgson.

Quickly it became apparent that these irregularities were part of a fraud too big for the council to handle alone and it called in the Benefits Agency and North Yorkshire Police's fraud squad. On August 5, 1998, specialist detectives armed with several search warrants and backed up by benefit and council officers descended in force on Eldon Street, in The Groves area of York, where Laverack had his office and four properties.

"He was quite a cool, calm customer when he was arrested, and he didn't seem particularly surprised," said Det Con Angela Hullah, who, with Det Con Ian Illingworth, headed the police investigation.

"When we arrived on his doorstep he didn't seem in the least perturbed, and he answered the questions we put to him at the station - but whether his answers were truthful or not is in some doubt.

"He may have thought that if you get away with it for this long, you must be doing something right," said DC Hullah.

But Laverack was definitely not doing things right because, as detectives discovered over the next 15 months, he was using other people's names to get public money.

"Some had moved, others didn't exist and others were well and truly six feet under," said DC Hullah.

One "York resident" was actually living in the USA.

As police officers began intensively questioning Laverack, council officers were preparing to interview 103 claimants whose forms said they were Laverack's tenants.

All had had their benefits stopped on August 5, not because the council thought they were cheats, but because officials needed to sort out the genuine claimants from the bogus. The only way to do that and stop the leakage of public money was to freeze all their claims and interview all 103 claimants.

Council officers admit it was a bold gamble and could have led to claimants being evicted because they could not pay their rent.

To prevent that happening, the council gave checking the Laverack claims top priority, and set up a week-long series of verification interviews with claimants.

The result, said Mr Hodgson, was that not one person complained and the genuine claimants all had their benefits restored, usually before their next cheque was due.

The council also had evidence they could pass on to the police, because the fake claimants did not turn up for interview.

Meanwhile, Benefits Agency staff were carrying out their own checks to bolster the case against Laverack.

Mr Hodgson strongly supports the decision to target Laverack. He points out that the landlord owned or managed properties housing about 100 - mainly vulnerable - people, and the council had a duty to check they were not being exploited.