Reporting someone for admissions fraud

[LaTristesseDureraEntre]

NC for this.

I've reported someone for admissions fraud/ giving a false address. Someone in my social circle. They've used their old home address for school applications, but that home is now a holiday let (they still own it) and they've moved down the road to a cheaper area. I sent the LA some info and will let them draw their own conclusions. I did it partly because it affects me/my family (in the obvious way - child in the same school year, tight catchment for desirable school). But tbh I find their behaviour awful so I imagine I'd have been minded to do it anyway.

AIBU? I know on MN the normal response is "keep your beak out" but, really, would you have kept quiet?

And no, before anyone starts, no “Ooh maybe child has special needs / husband is polygamous / there’s a special underground tunnel linking the two properties so that they are in fact one”. Just pure old address fakery. WIBU?

@Toanewstart23

I am! I am the sort of person who gets het up about P&C parking violations. That’s me. I’m neurotic, petty and law-abiding and want the rest of the world to be too. But on this occasion I think my moralising puts me squarely in the right.

To whoever asked, the child hasn’t started school yet and the move was months before the application deadline. Ie when they made the application they weren’t living at address A.

@Toanewstart23

The absolute hypocrisy of *@XelaM*

On a thread from an OP wanting children hit her DH not, this was @XelaM ‘s contribution…

* It's completely immoral and I will get flamed for this, but in your position I would "honey trap" him.*

I don’t think XelaM is being hypocritical. In both cases she is saying that being dishonest is absolutely fine if it gets you what you want.

She would only be hypocritical if she objected to us going round to her house and stealing all her things.

I would have done the same. Absolutely

@Clarinet1

I think the people who say that they would report the fraud only if their own child was affected are being very selfish and almost as bad as the fraudster. If it’s wrong (which it is) it’s wrong.

I have neither the time nor energy to chase up every lead when fraud or something else may or may not have occurred. Do you?

If they have a holiday let they probably also benefitted from a free covid grant (about £10k)!

No but the point was making was that it should not be the fact that one’s own child is going to bear the brunt of the fraud that is the deciding factor on whether to report or not.

@withiceplease

I think you were right Lived in an area where this was v common due to desirability of school and it really irritated me Even though my DC were private and no difference at all to them!

The hyprocrisy here!

I'm guessing your child is first on the waiting list and will now get a place?

@Daisycrown we don’t know yet but in previous years the catchment was the size of my backside so it could well make the difference.

@LaTristesseDureraEntre

This yeas is a very low birth year so catchment may surprise you. Same as last year we got into a school wed have never got in before but put it as our first choice

Wow I can't believe how many people would report something like this.
Lots of people need to get a life...

@changingjobs

Would you say the same about other types of fraud? As that is was it is legal and fraudulent

I worked in a village nursery, and the village school was outstanding and oversubscribed, and not big. Every year we would have at least two families in tears because their child hadn’t got a place, despite the fact that they lived in t(e village, were in walking distance and it was their nearest school by a long shot.
Also every year, we listened to the joyful families idiotic enough to proclaim that they had used grandparents addresses or they were now moving out of the rental they had used to get the place and back to the town 3 miles away which has about 8 primary schools, all of which would be nearer to their home than village school.
My manager reported fraudulent, renting isn’t fraudulent (just a case of morals) so no point in reporting that. I know one family who did loose their space, another one who somehow managed to fight it and retain their spot.
I also remember the family where the renting trick totally backfired and the second child didn’t get a place due to their home now being over two miles away (which was the sibling cut off in the case of moving house). Two school runs for them.

I think you did the right thing Op. We live in a society where some people are just allowed to get away with it and the rest need to shut up. Why?

Also when people find out the family won’t be like. Someone clearly did this in my sons class and other parents really bitch about it

So becuase they have moved down the road to a ‘cheaper area’ their child shouldn’t be entitled to a decent education? Does that mean if you move during the course of your child’s education your child should be kicked out of school , or if they live in a ‘cheaper area’ they should should be excluded from attending better schools ? I know someone who this happened to whose child was adopted ( they get priority ) , and because they lived the wrong side of the bridge they thought they must have committed ‘fraud ‘. Talk about entitled and somewhat spiteful !

Would it have been a problem for you if your child had got a place I wonder ?

@changingjobs

Wow I can't believe how many people would report something like this. Lots of people need to get a life...

Would you honestly be fine with your child not getting into their local school as someone lied? Completely honestly? Or any school?

@Gwenhwyfar Perhaps she had friends or relatives who were or would have been impacted by this sort of fraud. Hardly hypocrisy especially when her child isn't taking up a space that another can then benefit from.

@changingjobs

Wow I can't believe how many people would report something like this. Lots of people need to get a life...

I've got a life

I would report on a heartbeat

I hate Criminals

@LaTristesseDureraEntre

Would you ever tell them it was you though?

Course not. I’d make sympathetic noises when Toby didn’t get into Leafy Primary and wait for them to direct their ire at the council/wherever.

Bit cowardly then.

Yes I agree with you …my child was directly effected by the lying scumbags for her grammar school and we had to go to Ombudsman with evidence of fraud!! We got her there in the end after the first term . Yes it did mean that children lost their place but the parents were responsible for lying in the first place !

@TrufflesAndToast

Good for you. All the people who get all ‘keep your beak out’ when this comes up - well I always wonder how they would feel if they were the one whose child missed out because of it. It’s no different to general crime - I think people have a duty to help the over stretched authorities by reporting it. If they’ve done nothing wrong they can prove so, and no harm done. If they have done wrong then all the better that they don’t get a place fraudulently and someone else’s child will get their rightfully deserved place.

That's assuming the "someone else's child" with a "rightfully deserved place" doesn't also have parents who are committing fraud...

@Macademiamum

I think you should never report anyone for anything if you aren't willing to tell them you did to their face. So eg. If one of my friends started using drugs and I reported concerns about their child to children's services, I would tell them I was doing so.

That’s silly

You’d tell someone who was hiding from a domestic abuser where they were hiding if you reported said domestic abuser?

Or child abuse? You’d tell said child abuser?

I think you did the right thing. We live in a really tight catchment area and a friend who lives close by didn’t get a place at the school and now has to drive to the next nearest school. Major inconvenience for her and her daughter didn’t get to go to the same school as her nursery friends. I have since found out that a parent at the school has used a relatives address to get their child a place at the school. Really underhand. Good for reporting.

@Toanewstart23

The absolute hypocrisy of *@XelaM*

On a thread from an OP wanting children hit her DH not, this was @XelaM ‘s contribution…

* It's completely immoral and I will get flamed for this, but in your position I would "honey trap" him.*

I don't think that's hypocritical. In both cases she is saying deception is ok. Depressing but consistent. 🤷‍♀️