• Yvonne Mosquito, 49, bought a property on James Turner Street in 2002
• The road features in controversial Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street
  
• She is deputy police and crime commissioner for West Midlands Police
• Her own force is investigating after residents boasted about criminality
  

By Kieran Corcoran

PUBLISHED: 09:28 EST, 17 January 2014 | UPDATED: 10:08 EST, 17 January 2014

A senior police figure owns a house on the notorious road in Birmingham dubbed Benefits Street.

James Turner Street, where ninety per cent of residents receive some kind of state handout, is the subject of a controversial documentary on Channel 4, which has shown squalor, racial tensions and criminality.

And it was last night revealed that Yvonne Mosquito, 49, the deputy police and crime commissioner for West Midlands police, bought a house on the blighted road in 2002 with her husband Winston.

She lives elsewhere in the city, and rents the house out as part of a property portfolio. However, none of her tenants are thought to feature on the programme, which has ignited a national debate on welfare.

Ms Mosquito, who is also a Labour councillor, paid £30,000 for the property, according to information on the Land Registry. It is now thought to be worth around £88,000.

Some residents on the street are being investigated by police in the wake of shocking scenes in the series, which show claimants confessing to fiddling their benefits.

The show's first episode even followed a serial shoplifter on a crime spree through central Birmingham, while his friend tried to sell free magazines to passers-by as if they were copies of the Big Issue.

The most recent episode showed a Romanian man alongside his 15-year-old child 'wife' - despite her being below the legal age to marry in both the UK and Romania. It was later revealed that the couple - who left the controversial street after a few months - have had a child.

The home appears on a declaration of interests submitted as part of her police role, though James Turner Street is not directly named, and only an area of the city - Winson Green - is referred to.

She also listed properties at three other locations: the Highgate area of Birmingham, the suburb of Erdington, and a £550,000 home in the town of Sutton Coldfield.

Income from her property portfolio would supplement her £65,000-a-year salary as deputy police and crime commissioner, as well as an annual allowance of £16,127 for being a councillor for the Nechells ward of Birmingham.

A spokesman for the Police and Crime Commissioner office said: 'She owns the property. She is the joint owner of the property with her husband. She lets it out to tenants.

'A member of her family lived there for some years but doesn't any more. She is uncontactable at the moment but is due back next week.'

Friends of Ms Mosquito who answered the door of her house in Sutton Coldfield suggested she was uncontactable because she is on a Caribbean Cruise.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that James Turner Street residents are to take part in a live Question Time-style TV debate about the show. It will be hosted by Channel 4 on February 10 at 10pm.

The announcement came after widespread discontent from those who live on and near James Turner Street about how the series has depicted them.

Channel 4 promised the panel of the debate would represent views across the political spectrum 'and crucially those who claim benefits'.

The channel's head of factual programming, Ralph Lee said: '[The series] does not and never has set out to reflect the experiences of every person who receives benefits. Yet it has triggered a national debate about state welfare at a time in which further welfare reforms are being proposed.'