Patel faced up to a year in jail or a £5,000 fine after Harrow council accused her of giving a false address in an attempt to secure a place at a top state primary.
Gujarat-origin mother, Mrinal Patel, 41, has revealed that she received hate mail after becoming the first parent to be prosecuted for allegedly lying about her address to gain a school place for her child. Patel faced up to a year in jail or a £5,000 fine after Harrow council accused her of giving a false address in an attempt to secure a place at a top state primary.
But the case against her collapsed amid warnings that Harrow’s use of the Fraud Act could be open to challenge. Patel criticised Harrow for putting her through an unnecessary ordeal after the council dropped the charges. Speaking to BBC1’s Inside Out programme, she said: “It’s been very traumatic, very stressful. I got some hate mail which I am looking to pass on to the police because I’m innocent in all this and I just feel this is what the council have brought on me.”
Patel said she and her son Rhys were living with her mother, whose home was inside the catchment area of popular Pinner Park First School, which received five applications for every place. Harrow council says it allocated places to children living up to a maximum of 0.685 miles away.
Patel reportedly moved out of the family home two miles from the school, outside Pinner Park’s catchment zone, because of marital problems. After the school accepted Rhys, she returned home.
The council said it repeatedly tried to discuss Patel’s application with her before resorting to legal action. Patel conceded that she should have agreed to a meeting. She said: “They wrote to me asking me to come for interview. I think that’s where it went wrong. Had I gone to interview it would never have gone to court,” she said.
In the programme, Harrow defends its decision to take action against Patel. Council leader David Ashton says: “This was an unusual case which we took on with great reluctance. We didn’t try to crack down on anybody.
Our objective was to discuss and resolve the situation. But for parents who, for whatever
reason, are reluctant to come and talk to us, we will take it seriously.” Harrow has urged ministers to tighten the Fraud Act 2006, which states that fraud is committed when a person “dishonestly makes a false representation, and intends, by doing so, to make a gain for himself or another, or to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk of loss”. The Patel case had to be dropped as it was not possible to demonstrate a “gain” or “loss” with regard to school places.
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has commissioned an inquiry by the school admissions watchdog to find out the scale of fraudulent applications and whether tighter rules are needed. The report is due next month.
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