Feb

Landlord fined £5,851 following extraordinary persecution of vulnerable tenant

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Cauline Thomas from Bristol has admitted harassing the mother of four children and financially exploiting the tenant’s worries over her family’s right to remain in the UK.

A Bristol landlady who drove a tenant from her property in
a campaign of harassment and financial exploitation has been fined by
magistrates.

Cauline Thomas’s crimes included not telling her tenant
in advance how additional charges for her bills would be calculated, failing to
safeguard the tenancy deposit in an approved scheme and sending communications
in the name of a fake person.

Following an investigation by the local council’s Private
Housing Rogue Landlord Unit, she admitted harassment under the Protection from
Eviction Act as well as knowingly or recklessly engaging in a commercial
practice which contravened the requirements of professional diligence.

Thomas was fined £2,500 at Bristol Magistrates Court,
with a victim surcharge of £170, and ordered to pay the tenant £1,181
compensation. The council was also awarded £2,000 costs.

Magistrates said Thomas had shown calculated behaviour in
selecting a vulnerable victim with children, who had moved into a multiple
occupancy flat in Easton during July 2017, without a tenancy agreement. Several
months later, Thomas started making additional charges that had no contractual
basis after enquiring about her tenant’s immigration status.

The prosecution argued that Thomas believed she could
financially exploit the victim because of a mistaken belief that she had no
leave to remain in the country.

When challenged over the charges, Thomas began a campaign
of harassment, including interfering with the flat’s water and electricity
supply, entering the flat without consent before issuing verbal threats and
illegal eviction notices. Her behaviour caused the tenant to pay the additional
charges under protest until she was finally driven out of the property in
November 2018.

Councillor
Paul Smith, cabinet member for housing, says: “This case demonstrates how the
council are taking action to protect vulnerable tenants and penalise those
landlords who harass and exploit vulnerable tenants.’’

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