Landlord with OBE to pay £300,000 fine over ‘appalling conditions’ at properties

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A veteran landlord with an OBE has been handed a whopping £300,000 fine after two decades of managing illegally converted houses.

Nirpaul Riat was given one of the largest ever fines in Hounslow for managing 22 properties where vulnerable tenants lived in appalling conditions.

Isleworth Crown Court heard that Riat also illegally converted a property into eight flats and rented an outbuilding in Osterley where the squalid conditions included damp, cramped rooms with limited natural light, a lack of hot water and heating that only working irregularly.

Previous fine

Riat was previously fined £20,000 in 2009 for illegally converting a property in Hanworth into flats, refusing to reinstate it as a single house or to stop using a static caravan as a separate home to rent out.

Riat now faces being sent to prison if he does not pay the new fine.

Hounslow Council says the rogue landlord treated his tenants as nothing more than a commodity – exploiting residents in need of housing for his own financial gain.

Rogue landlords

Councillor Tom Bruce (pictured), cabinet member for regeneration and development, adds: “While these residents were left to languish in these appalling conditions, Nirapaul grew rich at their expense.

“I hope today’s verdict sends a message that we do not – under any circumstances – tolerate rogue landlords in Hounslow and will use the full force of the law to prosecute them.”

Riat was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to charity after he raised nearly £50,000 for air ambulance services, Thames Valley Crime Stoppers and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

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