A council tenant who failed to disclose that he owned three houses in a neighbouring borough has been given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay over £80,000.

Jamir Hussain was a tenant of Camden Council in London, and owned the properties in Haringey.

At Wood Green Court, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended for two years, fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £73,767 in compensation to local and central government as well as Camden Council’s costs of £4,745.

The fraud came to light when he applied to purchase his Camden council flat. Council tenants must inform the council if they own any property, but Hussain failed to do so.

Hussain gave up possession of the flat when the fraud was detected.

However, Judge Lucas took a very serious view of the offences.

He told the court that they were motivated by greed and could have resulted in Hussain unfairly purchasing a property at a substantial discount and at the expense of the genuinely needy who could have made use of it.

The court also heard that Hussain was in the processing of selling one of his properties in order to pay off loans he had taken out to pay the compensation.

Cllr Meric Apak, Camden’s cabinet member for better homes, said: “We have over 6,000 families on our housing waiting list in desperate need, so it is welcome to see our enforcement work returning a council home that can make a real difference to a family in our borough.”

Cllr Apac said that Camden Council is investing £1bn in a programme which includes buying back homes previously sold under Right to Buy.