Police continue hunt for third man after association’s £28m loss
Two charged in Ujima fraud investigation
Fraud detectives have charged a housewife and a consultant with money laundering following a 17-month investigation into suspected fraud at Ujima Housing Association.
They are still hunting a third man who skipped bail in May this year.
Rose Avwunu, 53, of Purley, Surrey and consultant Paul Campagne, 46, of Coulsdon, Surrey, were both charged with money laundering at the end of September. They have been summoned to appear before City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 November.
Ms Avwunu and Mr Campagne were arrested in March last year by officers from the Metropolitan police’s economic and specialist crime unit. Detectives are attempting to trace a third man, also from Surrey, who was arrested at the same time on suspicion of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud Ujima.
Three other men who were arrested by police in October 2008 and January 2009 in connection with the fraud probe have now been released from bail, a police spokesperson said.
Fraud investigators’ inquiries into the suspected fraud and money laundering at Ujima Housing Association are on-going, he added.
Fraud officers launched their probe in February 2008 - a month after Rob Wilson, Conservative MP for Reading East, asked the Metropolitan police commissioner to examine the concerns of Ujima whistle-blowers. The first arrests were made a month later.
Mr Wilson wrote to the police after becoming frustrated at the response of former housing association watchdog, the Housing Corporation. ‘I contacted the corporation to ask a number of questions, which were not answered to my satisfaction,’ Mr Wilson said in the letter to Sir Ian Blair, the former Metropolitan police commissioner.
Ujima Housing Association went from having a £7 million surplus in 2004/05 to a predicted £7 million loss in 2006/07. Its actual loss was £28 million, an employment tribunal has been told (Inside Housing, 30 October).
Its 30-year history ended in January 2008 when its £1 billion assets were transferred to London & Quadrant Housing Trust.
The investigation so far
February 2008
Fraud investigation launched
March to October 2008
Four arrests made
December 2007
Ujima declared insolvent
January 2009
Two more men arrested
May 2009
A 50-year-old man from Coulsdon, Surrey fails to answer bail
September 2009
Rose Avwunu and Paul Campagne charged with money laundering
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Readers' comments (10)
peter | 13/11/2009 11:07 am
Is there going to be an investigation on the conduct of Housing Coroporation officers who were involved in the demise of Ujima HA? It has been alleged that these officers buried their heads in the sand despite being repeatedly informed by members and whistle blowers about the fraud and mismanagement that was going on.
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unsurprised | 13/11/2009 3:23 pm
i doubt it, it is usually the way with 'public servants' they will get away with it. In fact, they probably got a bonus this year for some kind of success in pushing paper about.
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kass | 13/11/2009 4:36 pm
"peter | Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:07 GMT
Is there going to be an investigation on the conduct of Housing Coroporation officers who were involved in the demise of Ujima HA? It has been alleged that these officers buried their heads in the sand despite being repeatedly informed by members and whistle blowers about the fraud and mismanagement that was going on...."
If this is true it is urgent for some legislation making individuals legally and personally responsible in case of blatant negligence... It is just an endless list of negligence some of it even criminal for which no one is practically accountable for and - as pointed out in the other post - even given bonuses. So why should they ever improve things or act properly? It's just ongoing madness.
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Fingers | 13/11/2009 9:00 pm
kass | Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:36 GMT
"peter | Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:07 GMT
Is there going to be an investigation on the conduct of Housing Coroporation officers who were involved in the demise of Ujima HA?
Kass have you noticed there is a noticable silence from the housing officers that are only too eager to critise you, have we any thoughts as to their reluctance to comment on this issue, or is it a case of turkeys dont talk about christmas.
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Jim Paton | 13/11/2009 10:30 pm
The trial will make things clearer, but at present it looks like these charges relate to a some sort of fraudulent sideshow at Ujima. There may have been other sideshows, too, but we've yet to hear of anything substantial concerning the central issues in Ujima's collapse. The main players too quick to the shredder, perhaps?
Peter is also quite right that Dr Corpy was oblivious to the alarming symptoms, over many years, that Ujima was a very sick housing association. You only had to observe their perenially empty houses, sometimes worse disrepair in the occupied houses than the empty ones, and their appalling treatment of tenants to see that. As Dr Corpy has now retired from practice, albeit under a cloud, I doubt that anything will ever be done about the cavalier negligence.
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Harry Lime | 16/11/2009 8:33 am
Fingers - do you honestly think there's anyone on here that would condone such fraud, or more to the point do you think it's indicative of the sector? It's like saying Harold Shipman is representative of all GP's. In all professions there will be some who line their own pockets given half the chance, let the police deal with them, as they are here. Would it be fair for me to call all tenants benefit cheats because a few happen to do so?
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kass | 18/11/2009 12:29 pm
Fingers | Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:00 GMT
kass | Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:36 GMT
"peter | Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:07 GMT
Is there going to be an investigation on the conduct of Housing Coroporation officers who were involved in the demise of Ujima HA?
Kass have you noticed there is a noticable silence from the housing officers that are only too eager to critise you, have we any thoughts as to their reluctance to comment on this issue, or is it a case of turkeys dont talk about christmas.
=======
the fact is that with all these caring social professionals, shouting out loud and clear, that they have gone into the profession to make a change and to help others (their careers and their salaries, pension schemes and bonuses especially of the well paid amongst them being the last consideration in their minds, of course) - it looks like by helping the others they mean their bosses more than anybody else.
How else would you explain that there are so few whistleblowers in social housing organisations? And when scandals come to light it's only after years and years of them going on? It looks like so many of them instead of 'serving tenants just cover up scandals...
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Sancho | 18/11/2009 5:41 pm
Kass, whilst I can't speak for others, I can certainly say that I went into this sector because I wanted to do something 'good' that would help people. That, however, is about as far as it goes. I expect to be paid to do my job and I do it well.
I have worked in the private sector and earned more but found the work itself a bit unfulfilling. What I'm driving at is that I have found that I do enjoy helping others and making some kind of difference but that, in the end, it's my job not the sole purpose god put me on the earth.
There aren't many scandals going around for us to cover up, to be honest and we're far more interested in stopping them from happening than we are in trying to pretend they never happened. Things do happen from time to time and there are bad eggs out there, but please don't taint the whole sector with that.
Back to the article: This relates to some other kind of fraud that was going on, rather than the whole mismanagement episode. I suspect that the Housing Corp unearthed it whilst investigating Ujima's books to deal with the mismanagement so, in reality, should be congratulated on delving deep enough to unearth something other than what they went there looking for.
As for why it took so long to deal with Ujima at all......to be honest, I think it's because they were a BME association and no-one wanted to upset them.
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| 19/11/2009 4:12 pm
"Sancho: As for why it took so long to deal with Ujima at all......to be honest, I think it's because they were a BME association and no-one wanted to upset them."
Ah-ha. Sancho hits the nail on the head. Not once has this been mentioned in the reporting of the affair yet it is the elephant in the room of the whole debacle. The race relations brigade have stuffed the public sector full of this "equality and diversity" Orwellian Newspeak so much so that the prevailing opinion is BME = good, anyone who criticises anything labelled BME = wacist. Ludicrous. No other European country has this problem, only in England as they say. Culturally toxic, fundamentally divisive and a boon the BNP, the Race Relations Act and the entire apparatus of privilege and carte blanche for so-called minorities associated with it should be scrapped in the interests of genuine community cohesion.
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R Doran | 28/11/2009 7:33 pm
to be honest, I think it's because they were a BME association and no-one wanted to upset them."
Actually it has nothing to do with being black - check the frauds and invariably you will find West Africans involved epsecially Nigerians. They happen to be black that is all.
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