A Plumstead married couple of benefit fraudsters were taken to court because they rented out their council home after buying themselves their own home.

Adealade Oshinmi is a 56-year-old project manager, working for a large housing association and earns in the region of £50,000 per year.

Yet that did not stop him and his wife, charity worker Foluke Oshinmi, 48, from continuing to rent out the two-bedroom council flat Downe House, Charlton given to them in 2002.

Mr and Mrs Oshinmi originally applied for a council home in September 1998 but bought their own home in Woolwich in 2000.

In 2003 they even bought themselves a second two-bedroom house in Roydene Road, Plumstead and started renting out the Woolwich house as well as the council flat in Charlton.

Over the next decade and a half, the fraudster couple managed to make a profit of more than £24,000 by renting out the property given to them by the council.

Eventually in 2015 the housing provider started to have suspicions about the pair and their scheme was uncovered.

When first questioned in 2015, the pair denied any wrongdoing and said they made no money, but finally on May 30 in 2018, the pair pleaded guilty to fraud at Woolwich Crown Court.

Mr and Mrs Oshinmi were also ordered to pay Greenwich Council and Charlton Triangle Homes, who rented the property on behalf of the council, a total of £24,568.87 plus legal costs of £7,656.00. They were also ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Upon sentencing, Judge Shorrock said that they had both jointly embarked upon this fraud from the outset and that he was “quite sure that they did so, not through ignorance, but through greed to let out this property for well over 10 years”.

Andrew Kimmance, director for Charlton Triangle Homes, said: "Everyone living in London knows there is a chronic shortage of affordable housing. There is no excuse for subletting a desperately needed council or housing association property.

“This is not a game. Our successful partnership with Royal Greenwich has demonstrated that you will get caught, you will be prosecuted and you will get a huge fine and a criminal record.”