A HARINGEY Council housing boss who abused her powers by allowing friends to skip waiting lists and pocketed money from bogus insurance claims is behind bars today.

Jeanette Mapp, 42, failedto record when properties became vacant and allocated them to her friends and relatives instead, Southwark Crown Court heard.

She then claimed cheques or DIY store vouchers worth thousands of pounds by claiming the flats and houses were flood damaged.

The mother-of-two, who has a conviction for benefit fraud, also made a series of false income support claims totalling £10,000.

The court heard she used some of the cash to pay off debts amassed by her 'violent' lover, Roy Blair, a criminal who has since been deported to Jamaica.

Mapp abused her position as Haringey's housing manager between February 2002 and January 2003. Her scam was uncovered when council officials visited one of her properties in Kessock Close, Tottenham.

The tenant told them he had been allocated the flat just two months after telling Mapp he could not afford his own property.

It emerged council houses were being let out in the names of either her lover, Blair, his brother, his friends or even his mother, who had never stepped foot in the UK, the court heard.

Prosecuting, Joanna Staples told the court after letting the homes, Mapp went on to collect money for supposed repairs to the properties.

Mapp asked the council for a series of cheques totalling £5,000 which were made payable to her friends who then forwarded the cash to her or Blair.

She even requested cash for tenants who were no longer alive, when friends moved into their flats after their deaths.

Over a period of two-and-a-half years, she claimed £10,000 in income support while working for housing departments in Islington or Haringey.

Defending, Dermot Keating said Mapp was under pressure to hand over money to Blair, because she was in an 'abusive' and 'violent' relationship, and had people demanding money on her doorstep.

Mapp, of Windmore Close, Wembley, admitted ten counts of misconduct in public office and ten of obtaining a money transfer by deception.

Jailing her for 13 months on Thursday, Judge Neil Stewart said: "The employment you obtained is wholly based on the presupposition that public trust is put in you to perform your duties honourably and impartially.

"When I look at the nature of your position, and the way you have abused it, the conclusion to which I am driven is they are offences which are serious. Nothing other than a custodial sentence can be justified."

Following the case, stringent checks and anti fraud measures have been put in place by Haringey Council to try and prevent a repeat of the situation.

Isidoros Diakides, executive councillor for housing, said: "These occurrences are rare and thanks to the vigilance of our housing managers they were quickly able to spot the fraud and check all of the tenancies with which she had been involved.

"The housing department alerted the police who were able to investigate further.

"The sentence is, I feel, appropriate, and I would like to congratulate the council officers on detecting a fraud that could have deprived people on our housing register of their rightful opportunity of a home."