Tenant who sub-let "death trap" property must pay over £26,500

A tenant who was ripping off other tenants in an overcrowded bungalow "death trap" has been fined tens of thousands of pounds in court.

Willesden magistrates court in London has found Petru Dregan guilty of breaking housing management regulations, neglecting to protect the safety of tenants from whom he was taking money and failing to licence the property in which they were living. 

Dregan was fined £20,000 for these offences as well as being ordered to pay £6,520 in court costs.

Brent council's licensing enforcement team raided the property in Wembley, earlier this year - the raid recently featured in a recent episode of Channel 5's Bad Tenants, Rogue Landlords series, which describved the conditions inside as a “death trap.”

The council says damp and mould caked the walls, windows and doors had been blocked off and smoke alarms had been covered up. 

Mattresses littered the floors of the living room, dining room and even the pantry. 

Makeshift bunkbeds made out of wood offcuts, pallets and tarpaulins enabled ten men to share one bedroom originally designed for two people.

A council spokeswoman says: "In a poorly managed property like this one, people's lives are at stake. Landlords, agents and subletters who ignore licensing laws and the regulations around housing management will be hit hard with heavy fines."

One of the occupants of the bungalow told enforcement officers that he was paying £50 a week to live there.