A council tenant has been ordered to pay almost £3,000 by way of an Unlawful Profit Order in addition to a further £2,914 in costs to Cornwall Council after letting out his property on the website AirBnB.

In a statement, the council said Peter John Wootton, 46, of Coastguard Flats, West Looe, was due to appear at Bodmin Magistrates Court on Wednesday, but failed to attend. The Magistrates agreed to hear the case in his absence. 

The Council’s Corporate Fraud Investigations Team began investigating Mr Wootton in July 2016 after receiving an anonymous tip-off that he had been advertising his property on the website AirBnB. Under the terms of Mr Wootton’s tenancy with Cornwall Housing Ltd he did not have permission to sub-let the property.

Further investigations identified 10 instances where payments were made to Mr Wootton, totalling £2,958.

He sent the council a handwritten statement stating that during the summer he had had people staying who he classed as lodgers.

Magistrates found Mr Wootton guilty of an offence under Section 1 of the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act for sub-letting and parting with possession of his whole dwelling house, ceasing to occupy it as his only or principal home.