Landlord given suspended prison sentence after appalling illegal eviction

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A landlord has been handed a suspended jail sentence for kicking out his tenant during a national eviction ban.

Amjad Ali Khattak removed the woman’s possessions in December 2020 and left them on the street in the rain (pictured), which was witnessed by a police officer.

Khattak admitted the offence and was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £15,000. 

Oxford Crown Court heard that the landlord, who owns the ground floor flat on Gatteridge Street (main pic), Banbury, failed to allow a Cherwell District Council environmental health officer to inspect the electrics but entered without the tenant’s permission to check the fuse board.

The tenant was forced to use old £1 coins to feed a meter and had suffered an electric shock using white goods in the kitchen.

Reference checks

The court heard that the tenant’s deposit had not been placed in a protection scheme, while Khattak had not carried out right to rent, or reference checks.

Her tenancy agreement was removed from among her personal belongings, while her cat disappeared during the eviction and has not been seen since.

Nicola Riley (pictured), the council’s assistant director for wellbeing and housing, says it advised Khattak that it would be illegal to evict his tenant; he not only ignored this warning, but also went on to disregard requests from the council and the police to allow her to re-enter her home.

“At the time of the offence, the tenant did owe a small amount of rent, but she had clearly communicated to her landlord that she would be able to catch up with payments in the coming days,” adds Riley.

“Responsible landlords will follow due process if there is a genuine need to evict a tenant, but this was not one of those cases.”

Picture credits: Cherwell council.

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