East Ham landlady set to be stripped of profits

A LANDLADY who ignored council planners to split a property into two flats is set to be stripped of her �15,000 profits.

Miriam Rehman was ordered to undo her conversion after the authorities discovered she had done the work without permission.

But she simply left the apartments in East Ham, as they were and continued to pocket rent from her tenants, Inner London Crown Court heard.

An inspector visited the Boston Road site on June 28 this year, seven months after the planning enforcement notice was issued, and found it occupied.

Nick Ham, prosecuting, said: ‘The benefit for the purpose of confiscation would run from the date the notice had to be complied with.

“The planning inspector gave her until 29 November 2009. From that date onwards she is in breach. The Crown’s case is since then both flats have been tenanted.

“The rent is six to seven hundred pounds per month each. The total is about �15,000 ongoing. The penalty is a financial one. She owns three properties, she lives in one and rents the other two.”

Rehman first appealed the order to the planning inspector but she lost as the split was against borough policy as it reduced the living space inappropriately.

She was due to be sentenced on Thursday but the judge, Recorder Robert Pryor, adjourned the case to February 28 to tie in with confiscation proceedings.

Rehman, of Boston Road, East Ham, admitted breaching a planning enforcement notice.