A landlord who refused to comply with planning laws has been served with a confiscation order and given an 18 month conditional discharge.
Isleworth Crown Court slapped Bhupinder Singh Gill of Southall in west London with a confiscation order for £66,325 that Gill made as proceeds from illegally renting his house and its outbuilding as accommodation.
Gill was also given a conditional discharge for 18 months and ordered to pay £4,765.57 towards costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
The result comes after an investigation by the local council's planning enforcement team. Officers took legal action after the landlord failed to comply with an enforcement notice served on him by the council in May 2009.
The notice required Gill to stop using his property as five self-contained flats and its garden outbuilding as another flat and remove all en-suite kitchens, internal partitions and doors being used to separate them.
The flats could have been used for accommodation for more than 12 people at a time.
Gill's appeal against the enforcement notice was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate in January 2010 and he was given 12 months to comply with the notice.
A spokesman for the authority says Gill had every opportunity to work with officers and rectify his mistakes but he chose to disregard those chances. His greed and disregard for the law could not go without punishment and we are pleased with the court's decision to impose such heavy penalties. Hopefully this will deter other unscrupulous landlords planning to ignore the law says the spokesman.
Gill has six months to pay the court costs or could serve up to 18 months in prison if he defaults.
Comments
@Guest (Rebecca)
So free speech and facts are stupid/offensive things to say.
Sounds very much as if you advocate a 1984 scene.
The problem is that the truth and free speech is increasingly being 'banned' in this country
MCS - you're right it is free speech, that doesn't counteract the fact its a stupid/offensive thing to say.
MCS - no you are not the only one to have noticed this. I have made similar comments to yours on a few occasions in the last few months (as have others). No you are not being racist - you are stating a fact and, yes, I do believe it is a culture issue.
Am I the only one to have noticed that landlord offenders in the PRS that have non sounding English names (English, not British) seem to be very much in the majority Could it be a culture thing not to obey the law in these matters Some may think that this query is racist, it is not, it is free speech.