What's to stop someone renting a flat purely for school admission..?

[eggplanty]

Other than the cost of the rent..?

I met some mums recently who had rented but never moved into a property near a very desirable school. Their children had gotten in.

Based of a few things I have read here schools are savvy to this but these women seemed very brazen, as if it were nothing.

They both owned properties that they remained in and just paid the rent on a small one bed just for admission purposes.

Is this normal in London? Or risky?

Ah ok thanks, a women around here did something similar a few yrs ago and the children did stay in the school

I knew of a child who was removed after 2 terms in a 3 term pre-school nursery. They literally did not allow her to complete the year.

why is it always assumed it's the mother cheating?
why not the father?

just saying

I agree that it's not just the mother!
Around here, some of the people who are lying did get a place, or so I infer from what I've been told. One child was kept on the nursery register but attended reception and was eventually given a place. Of course I don't have all the information; maybe that was completely reasonable. We didn't have that option as we weren't in the nursery (and it shouldn't matter).
I doubt the councils really think about this, but a 50% drop in minimum distance corresponds to 1/4 the area. If there are many flats that have been built (that are appropriate for families), maybe that's the reason. In this case I don't believe so, but it's possible. But if not, and if the distance goes from 500m to 250m, then there just won't be 4x the density of children as there were last year -- it's too improbable. Even why 50% siblings that would be an increase of 30 DC in the 250m.
And how hard is it to get council tax or child benefit at your new rental address? Those things, even utilities, don't require you to actually live there - just to pay those bills. They should use online grocery address and credit card bills! (no doubt impractical… I'm not serious).
Tiggytape and prh47bridge - I know you are very knowledgeable about primary admissions and I really hope, and trust overall, that you are right. But I suspect that where I am, particularly for in-year admissions, the LA is not checking or not checking very carefully. I hope they are. I have also heard rumours (only rumours) of very able DC getting in to some schools by arrangement with the HT; not at reception admission but later, presumably so as to increase L5s on KS2 SATS. No idea if this is true but with schools handling their own waiting lists, I guess it could be. Seems like a big risk for a HT to take but then again, if no one is checking …