A care company has been prosecuted and fined for running illegal children’s homes in what has been called the first case of its kind.
Catalyst Care Limited is the first unregistered children’s homes provider to be successfully prosecuted, according to Ofsted, which brought the legal action against it.
Its directors pleaded guilty at Croydon Magistrates’ Court in relation to failing to register children’s homes and have been fined a total of £92,400.
The Croydon company operated three homes in Kent between 2022-2025 which accommodated up to nine children. During this time the homes received over £1.7m million in payments from local authorities.
Ofsted said this was despite it repeatedly warning directors they were breaking the law.
All children’s homes in England must register with Ofsted, and managing a home without a registration is a criminal offence.
The directors, Miriam Ekhator and Davidson Lynch-Shyllon, were disqualified from carrying on and/or managing or having a financial interest in a children’s home.
They were also ordered to pay victim surcharges totalling £2,960, and costs of £17,250.
Musa Raji, on behalf of Catalyst Care Limited, said the defendants’ “focus was on the children in front of them and sadly not on the paperwork”, and they “made mistakes, but did not act out of malice or greed”.
The prosecution said unregistered children’s homes operate without oversight, meaning children who are placed there have no assurance of “safe or suitable care”.
Ofsted say in such homes there are no guaranteed checks on staff or living conditions and there is no accountability when things go wrong.
But according to the regulator, the lack of available places in legitimate settings has led to a shadow market of illegal care homes.
