WA woman arrested for allegedly bumping her boyfriend up the social housing list
A 55-year-old Clarkson woman was arrested and appeared in court on Wednesday after police investigated a housing buyer who had significantly outgrown the queue for a property.
WA Police allege Nadine Marie Smith, 55, prepared a housing offer for a social housing applicant with whom she had an “intimate relationship” while working in a public office in Mirrabooka.
Police claimed the applicant then skipped a “significant number” of applicants on the waiting list.
Smith was charged with corrupt conduct in the discharge/discharge of the duties of a public servant and appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where his bail was renewed.
Detective Superintendent Peter Foley, of the Financial and Cyber Crime Division, said the alleged conduct constituted a serious breach of trust and undermined the fair management of public resources.
“People who abuse the authority of their positions, including those trusted to manage housing resources in a fair and equitable way, create an unfair disadvantage for the wider WA community,” he said.
“Applicants on social housing waiting lists can wait up to five years.
“This includes vulnerable people with high priority needs, such as those experiencing homelessness or domestic violence.
“WA Police takes these matters very seriously and its financial crime team
“Those who fulfill their duties corruptly will be brought to justice and presented to the courts.”
The current waiting list for public housing consists of 23,237 applications. More than 8,000 of these are high priority.
In December 2025, the average wait time was 166 weeks, and for the priority list, that was a full 100 weeks.
