A company has been fined a whopping £400,000 for by ignoring a planning enforcement notice.

HAAB Development Limited and company director Sheikh Behaeddin Adil pleaded guilty for failing to comply with a planning enforcement notice for a property in the North Paddington area of Westminster.

At the sentencing hearing HAAB and Adil were ordered to pay £415,101.13, for particular criminal conduct under the Proceeds of Crime Act, within three months.

Westminster City Council inspected the property after receiving a complaint about a first-floor extension. In May 2015 Westminster council officers found that the property was converted from a shop with three residential flats, to a shop with seven inadequately sized studio or one-bed flats. 

This involved rear extensions to the ground floor and first floor as well as many internal rearrangements.

The local authority issued an enforcement notice in April 2016 which was required to be complied with by November 18 2016. The notice required the removal of unauthorised works and internal rearrangements to convert the property back to how it was.

In January 2020, the requirements of the notice were still not complied with, and Westminster council decided it was in the public interest to prosecute the company and its director.

The enforcement notice was finally complied with in February 2023, with the company and director contesting the prosecution claiming that they were not aware of the central London authority’s concerns about the breach of planning control, despite employing a planning agent to respond to the council’s concerns as early as October 2015.

Following the sentencing hearing the company and director were required to pay fines of £9,750 each and contributions towards costs in the sum of £50,000 (£25,000 each) within three months. This is in addition to the proceeds of crime order.

A council spokesperson says: “Planning Enforcement is there to protect and prevent harm to our historic built environment such as the much loved Queens Park Conservation Area.

“We are clear that enforcement notices will be served and must be complied with if a building owner goes ahead with development without  getting planning permission first.

“I welcome this verdict, and the proceeds of crime order, as a warning to others and a reminder that Westminster Council is committed to protecting our City from unscrupulous property developers. ”