Rahand Raza

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Respondent was convicted under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 for dishonestly sub-letting his social housing flat without the Landlord's consent between October 2013 and September 2016, receiving rent while not living there. He was sentenced to 12 weeks' imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to pay £3,496 compensation. The Tribunal found breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6 proved, and the offence involved dishonesty (admitted). The Tribunal assessed culpability and harm as high, found no exceptional circumstances under Sharma/James, and ordered strike off plus costs of £2,471.90.

Duties found breached:

• Integrity
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank

Aggravating factors:

• Conviction for offence involving dishonesty
• Deliberate and calculated conduct from which he personally benefitted
• Concealment of sub-letting from the Landlord
• Protracted course of conduct over a lengthy period (over 2 years)
• Backed off when Mr E2 threatened to report him to the Landlord, indicating something to hide

Mitigating factors:

• Guilty plea in Magistrates' Court, seemingly against legal advice
• Prompt self-report of conviction to the SRA
• Payment of compensation of £3,496 to the Landlord
• Apology and genuine insight
• No previous disciplinary findings
• Serious health problems and relationship difficulties during relevant period
• Six positive character references