A landlord faces a court bill of almost £40,000 after cramming 24 people into a house meant for no more than seven.

Willesden Magistrates’ Court heard Tilak Raj Sarna initially claim innocence but then accept his guilt after two days of cross-examination.

Brent Council had granted Sarna a licence to house seven people at the house in multiple occupation in Wembley, north London.

When housing enforcement officers made an unannounced visit to the house in January they found 24 tenants living there, including seven families with ten young children.

The squalid conditions at the house included:

         An infestation of cockroaches

         Blatant disregard of basic fire safety measures, with missing smoke alarms, overloaded electrical sockets and inadequate fire doors

         Cold and damp rooms

         Overflowing bins outside the house.

Six tenants lived in an unheated shed in the back garden until it burnt down in October last year in a fire caused by a portable heater.

The blaze started while a child was asleep in the shed.

The magistrates threw the book at Sarna for his overcrowding and fire safety offences, with fines totalling £33,000. He was also ordered to pay costs of £6,420 and a £120 victim surcharge, making a total of £39,540.

The case also saw a prosecution for Mrs Anila Patel, who collected £3,700 monthly rent from the tenants on the landlord’s behalf. She was convicted of two offences and fined £1,000 and told to pay a £90 victim surcharge.

All the tenants living in the property have since found alternative accommodation.

Cllr Margaret McLennan, Brent Council’s deputy leader, accompanied officers on the raid in January. She said: “Where we find serious breaches of the law like this, we will always take landlords and their agents to court.

“Mr Sarna had housed a family in the garden shed and had grossly overcrowded the two-storey property, leaving tenants in an unsafe, damp and cockroach-infested house while taking £3,700 off them each month for the privilege.”