A landlord suspected of rape has fled the UK for Cameroon while owing the taxpayer roughly £200,000, prompting accusations of "multiple failures" by police and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Ndumbe Achile Ndumbe, 41, was released under investigation after his arrest and allowed to keep his passport, enabling him to leave the country despite the ongoing inquiry, which had expanded after officers found evidence of possible offences against other women on his seized devices.

Ndumbe defrauded the taxpayer of up to £180,000 through false housing benefit claims while letting out six unlicensed houses in multiple occupation near Manchester, and was separately fined £26,486 by Wigan Council for licensing breaches. He is believed to have flown out via Manchester Airport in January and has reportedly continued claiming around £200 a month in Personal Independence Payment, which the DWP says can continue for 13 weeks after someone leaves the UK; it has not confirmed whether payments carried on beyond that. Police are working with Cameroonian authorities to try to locate and extradite him, though he retains a Cameroonian passport that was never confiscated.