A landlord has been ordered to pay over £200,000 after illegally converting two properties into poor quality flats without planning permission and ignoring enforcement notices requiring him to restore the properties to their original guilty

Vijay Kara was taken to Harrow Crown Court by Brent Council and pleaded guilty.

One of the properties was in an industrial estate off the North Circular road.

Kara was served a confiscation order of £187,600 for both properties, fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000.

A confiscation order is designed to take the profit out of crime by making the convicted defendant pay a sum of money to the Crown representing the benefits of the crime.

Cllr Margaret McLennan, lead member for housing and development at Brent Council, said: “It’s staggering that Mr Kara thought that he could get away with letting out illegal sub-standard accommodation, despite a conviction for the same offence in 2009.

“Thanks to our hard working enforcement team, he has been caught out again and landed with a hefty bill.

“It is so important for planning rules to be upheld, not just to protect what our streets look like, but to protect tenants from poor standard accommodation.”

In a separate case, dealt with at Nottingham Magistrates Court, another landlord was told to sell property he owns in London to settle his bill.

Nadeem Hussain, 44, of Sheffield, was fined £16,237, including costs for not ensuring the tenants’ safety and effectively maintaining three houses in Nottingham.

He pleaded guilty to five offences under the Housing Act 2004 and management regulations, including failing to ensure that the fire detection and alarm systems were working.