STUDENT OF FRAUD

No Trust! Fraud and petty theft seem to be run of the mill for some people. Another tenant that stayed with me was a Mr Sean Beau-Pierre, whom I went out of my way to help, assisting with transporting his stuff and other things while he was here. In return he helped himself to anything that wasn't nailed down, even going through other tenants rooms and taking things that didn't belong to him. He tried to divert rent money by filling in another housing benefit form to replace the one we had initially filled in together and when I confronted him about it he got angry and said "There's no trust!" Humm! He was here for nearly two years and hardly did any work in that time, relying on benefits and his girlfriend to help him out. He did have a two week trial at Brown's restaurant at Bluewater, but he didn't actually last the two weeks. The manager told me he didn't make the grade and was 'let go' early because of his attitude.

A Student Of Fraud? Eventually, after about 18 months here, he decided he would sign up for a student finance loan to get the funding to go to university. I'm not sure whether he was sincere about the study or whether he saw this simply as easy money. Chances are he thought it would be easy money. At this point, housing benefit stopped paying his rent and I then had the choice of evicting him or allowing him to stay. Wanting to see him get on if possible, I said if he was serious about studying and was going to make some effort, I would help him out. It was a gamble but I didn't think it should take too long to get his loan sorted and said I would help him get it arranged if he gave me his word he was serious and would not let me down. But of course, you guessed it, he didn't stick to it. Student Finance England told me it should take about three weeks to process his application, so at worst it wouldn't amount to too much money. However, this did not turn out to be the case as Student Finance England turned out to be completely inept at doing their job. They also said there was no facility to pay his landlord direct, as per the arrangement I had had with the Housing Benefit department. Payment could only be made directly to the student.

Green Lights and Carrots: This again gave the green light, the carrot, and the golden opportunity for him to commit a fraud. Well, is it a fraud in the eyes of the law? Apparently not! In the end, Student Finance were so useless, making error after error, that what should have taken three weeks, took them three months to sort out. As they wouldn't pay me directly, it gave him the opportunity to go out and have massive spend up and abscond owing me three months rent. He didn't even bother to say goodbye, he sneaked off when I wasn't around, leaving his room in a trashed state. I did report all the instances to the police, who actually did track him down via Student Finance England, and arrested him for interview. He wasn't too pleased apparently however, he was interviewed and stated that yes, he did owe me the money and that the trashing of the room was wear and tear. Despite the photographic evidence I presented to the police and his admission to doing what he had done, no further action was taken. Despite being significantly out of pocket and having to pay for his room to be sorted, I was advised that all I could was apply for a small claims hearing. For a claim of that amount it would have cost me a further £120.00. Money I didn't have and more outlay on top of all else. It would probably have been wasted anyway, because the chances of him honouring any sort of court judgement would be zero I would think. He had no honour and he couldn't be trusted and law couldn't bothered. If he doesn't change his ways, he will carry on down the same road, until one day he will over step the mark significantly and the law will come crashing down on him at considerable additional cost to the taxpayer. In the meantime, how many other people will be victimised or troubled by him?

A History Of Problems: During my subsequent further investigatings regarding Sean Beau-Pierre, I talked to the estate agent that was selling the house where he had previously lodged. He told me that Sean had been extremely problematic to the landlady there. He had been intimidating towards her and had caused problems when people were trying to view the property. He had been reported to the police but nothing again gets done to put him straight. If society does nothing to address this kind of behaviour, it will just carry on happening. Bad behaviour, on any level, needs to be addressed, if it is not, we will never see any improvement.

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