Non-White mother who used false address to get son into top school will NOT be prosecuted
A mother accused of lying to get her son into a top state school has had charges against her dropped.
Mrinal Patel, 41, who gave her mother’s address on her application, would have been the first parent in the country to be prosecuted for school admissions fraud.
But Harrow Council in north-west London admitted yesterday it feared its use of the Fraud Act 2006 could be open to challenge because of loopholes in the law.
The decision has far-reaching implications for the enforcement of school admissions rules across the country.
Mrs Patel, who faced up to a year in jail or a £5,000 fine if convicted, said that when she applied for a place at Pinner Park First School for her five-year-old son Rhys, she was living at her mother’s home over the road from the school because she and her husband were having marital problems.
However, after four weeks she moved back in with her husband.
The family home was considerably farther from Pinner Park than her mother’s house.
Like most primaries, Pinner Park, which is rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, gives priority to applicants who live closest.
Mrs Patel admitted wrongly stating on her application form that she had been living at her mother’s address for 14 years.
She had done this because she was ‘under a tremendous amount of stress’. In fact, her mother had lived there for 14 years.
She said she had been truthful with the council that she had moved back to her husband’s home.
‘They still decided to put me through all of this,’ she said. ‘I have from the outset denied the allegations and the council’s unconditional withdrawal of the proceedings confirms my innocence.’
Mrs Patel chose the private Quainton Hall School for her son instead.
Councillor David Ashton, the leader of the council, said: ‘We brought this case with the greatest reluctance, after attempts to get Mrs Patel to expand on apparent irregularities on the school application form proved fruitless.
‘This case was never about persecuting mothers who wish to do the best for their children.
‘It was about defending the integrity of the school system against those who might seek to flout it.’
The Fraud Act 2006 says 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 problem in the Mrinal Patel case was that Harrow council was unsure whether it would be possible to demonstrate ‘gain’ or ‘loss’ with regard to school places.
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Tags: discrimination, Fake Address, Fraud, Harrow Council, Mrinal Patel, Non-White mother, North-West London, Ofsted, Pinner Park, Pinner Park First School, Quainton Hall School, Top School, UK
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