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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Reporting someone for admissions fraud

399 replies

LaTristesseDureraEntre · 18/02/2022 16:12

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?

OP posts:
TronDeReplay · 18/02/2022 19:30

I think if parents own a residence in the catchment area that is good enough.

So landlords can get their kids into school but people renting there can't. Nice set of priorities.

Dindundundundeeer · 18/02/2022 19:32

@JaniieJones

'So if you think the rules shouldn't be enforced, presumably you think there shouldn't be any school admission rules if it's fine for anyone to lie about where they live to get in?'

I think if parents own a residence in the catchment area that is good enough.

I couldn't live like this, reporting other parents. It seems so petty.

So where is your line?

Do you stand by and watch someone get mugged?
Do you watch someone punch someone?
These people aren’t following the rules, which if everyone disregarded would achieve chaos.

Personally my line is close to doing the right thing. Always.
Yours isn’t. Where do you draw a line?

SueSaid · 18/02/2022 19:32

'So landlords can get their kids into school but people renting there can't.'

Sorry, I think if you own a residence in the catchment area or rent in the catchment area that is good enough. No need for supersleuths running telling tales is there?

SueSaid · 18/02/2022 19:33

'Do you stand by and watch someone get mugged? Do you watch someone punch someone?'

I'd ring the police. Obviously.

Kid going to school? No.

Dindundundundeeer · 18/02/2022 19:34

@JaniieJones

'So landlords can get their kids into school but people renting there can't.'

Sorry, I think if you own a residence in the catchment area or rent in the catchment area that is good enough. No need for supersleuths running telling tales is there?

So what if there’s one place and the renter and the landlord compete?
Rainbowqueeen · 18/02/2022 19:34

The rules are in place because of a policy that children should go to their local school so they remain in their community and the community becomes stronger by forcing ties between families. Also so that children do not get tired by having to travel long distances to school and so parents can more easily get their kids to school.
I agree with those policies and so I agree with your decision OP
These parents had a choice to stay in their former residence Choices have consequences.

TronDeReplay · 18/02/2022 19:34

@JaniieJones

'So landlords can get their kids into school but people renting there can't.'

Sorry, I think if you own a residence in the catchment area or rent in the catchment area that is good enough. No need for supersleuths running telling tales is there?

OK, but my question was about who should be prioritised as there are limited places in schools.

The people who own a property in the catchment area, vs the people who actually live there.
Which should get the place and which should lose out?

That's what it's about. Unless the school has infinite places, someone always has to be placed above someone else. You're saying that owning should take priority?

Waxonwaxoff0 · 18/02/2022 19:34

I wouldn't report because I really don't care. This whole angst about school places isn't a thing in my social circle, our kids go to whatever schools are nearby.

Dindundundundeeer · 18/02/2022 19:36

@Waxonwaxoff0

I wouldn't report because I really don't care. This whole angst about school places isn't a thing in my social circle, our kids go to whatever schools are nearby.
Except if the places have gone to liars. Then perhaps you can catch a bus as the local places have gone to liars.
Original poster
LaTristesseDureraEntre · 18/02/2022 19:37

@JaniieJones in the borough next to mine wealthy parents were famously renting single bedsits and claiming whole families lived there during admissions season, bumping down actual locals and shrinking the catchment. Still ok?

OP posts:
Thewindwhispers · 18/02/2022 19:38

In the circumstances you describe I think the school would have found out anyway after a while, and then withdrawn the place. MUCH better for the child not to have to move schools because of her parents behaviour.

I reckon you did the kid a favour.

christinarossetti19 · 18/02/2022 19:38

But the Admissions Code isn't about owning a residence, it's about where you live.

At a slight tangent, I do find it really sad to see 'low FSM' and 'low SEN' as a reason to want to go to a particular school.

My children both went to a primary that had high levels of both, and both children thrived in a diverse environment. One has SEN btw. It was very noticeable through their primary years that it was the white, middle class parents who were on waiting lists for and eventually got a place at the 'preferred' school, while all the new children into their school were migrants or families who had just moved into the area and had no 'choice'.

Although it was unsettling to see the 'white flight', I believed at the time and still do that it's ultimately their loss.

Nomilkinmycoffeeplease · 18/02/2022 19:39

You feel good about this anyways, so why ask?

Chimchiminie · 18/02/2022 19:40

@GatoradeMeBitch

Spineless really, if you feel strongly enough to report them it's pretty sad to not stand by that.

Because it's her real life, not her internet life? Telling someone in your social circle you sabotaged their choice of school is a great way to find yourself without a social circle.

Exactly – because it’s an underhand thing to do. Yet the OP seems to see herself as being motivated by righteousness and ‘what’s right’. In fact, she would be judged as sly and untrustworthy by her social circle as she has broken the social contract, just as she believes this ‘person in her social circle’ to have done by working the catchment system in her favour.

It’s a system that is imperfect anyway - there should be parity of provision wherever you live - and continues to advantages people with the means to move to a better off area, whether this particular woman’s child ends up going to OP’s favoured school or not. But by the OP’s logic, this woman is undeserving because she couldn’t afford somewhere liveable in the area with the nice school? She didn’t ‘earn’ the place by living in a too-small flat for a year?

You can say rules are rules and that’s fair enough - the council have chosen to set the catchment up in a particular way. But it’s an arbitrary system, and there was no reason for OP to get involved other than self-interest, resentment, and hubris. Don’t pretend there’s some noble justice to it.

Jconnais1chansonquivavsenerver · 18/02/2022 19:40

They own it. Fair enough.

luxxlisbon · 18/02/2022 19:41

I don’t understand why more people don’t see/care about how unfair the school admissions system is anyway. So it’s unfair for them to not live in the house but use the address to apply the school, somehow affecting your child’s place? But it isn’t unfair for kids who live in the “cheaper” area to not have a chance at a good school?

ancientgran · 18/02/2022 19:42

It's a horrible thing to happen to you. When one of my kids was 11 and got into a very good school someone reported us for fraud. His father and I had him roughly 50/50, it wasn't worked out scientifically as it depended on out of school activities e.g. his dad lived closer to cricket club I lived nearer to football so he probably spent a bit more time with his dad in summer and with me in winter. The other issue was the school was closer to his dad who didn't drive and when he was with me I could drop him off near the school.

After the investigation he kept his place but it is horrible to look at friend/family/people at school and wonder who it was.

Wulfenite · 18/02/2022 19:43

I agree luxxlisbon and also think people who loudly trumpet their moral disapproval of private schools but don't really need to care -because they use their buying power to end up in the right school catchment - are hypocrites.

Chimchiminie · 18/02/2022 19:45

@Rainbowqueeen

The rules are in place because of a policy that children should go to their local school so they remain in their community and the community becomes stronger by forcing ties between families. Also so that children do not get tired by having to travel long distances to school and so parents can more easily get their kids to school. I agree with those policies and so I agree with your decision OP These parents had a choice to stay in their former residence Choices have consequences.
That’s a fair point rainbow
Bumpy23 · 18/02/2022 19:45

But they're not stopping the children who live in that house go to the school as they own the house, they could live there. If they'd moved and someone else lived there and they used that address, then I'd report that.

TronDeReplay · 18/02/2022 19:47

@luxxlisbon

I don’t understand why more people don’t see/care about how unfair the school admissions system is anyway. So it’s unfair for them to not live in the house but use the address to apply the school, somehow affecting your child’s place? But it isn’t unfair for kids who live in the “cheaper” area to not have a chance at a good school?
It's not a blanket rule that cheaper places have 'bad' schools. Cities - maybe; outstanding schools will always drive up property prices.

I live in a small town with a mix of cheaper council housing and expensive mansions. Pretty much all local kids could get in to the (very good) school as it is based on where they live.

If, as some seem to be suggesting, it was down to property ownership, it'd be more unfair.

It's one thing to think the system is unfair but another to directly lie to advantage yourself by breaking the rules. (and when you can still "legally" get around it by moving after enrolment date?!)

Supersimkin2 · 18/02/2022 19:48

It’s fraud you can only commit if you’re rich enough to cheat a poor child or three out of a place.

SoupDragon · 18/02/2022 19:49

@Bumpy23

But they're not stopping the children who live in that house go to the school as they own the house, they could live there. If they'd moved and someone else lived there and they used that address, then I'd report that.
They are stopping another child in a different house though. That is the point. They do not live at the address they have applied from, that is all that matters.
Bumpy23 · 18/02/2022 19:51

I also think it's sneaky at spiteful to anonymously report some one. Grow a pair and confront them, you obviously don't align with their values so what have you got to lose?

TronDeReplay · 18/02/2022 19:52

@Bumpy23

I also think it's sneaky at spiteful to anonymously report some one. Grow a pair and confront them, you obviously don't align with their values so what have you got to lose?
How would confronting them instead of reporting them change anything?