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Aug 14, 2023

Businessman with OBE branded 'rogue landlord' as he's fined £300k for forcing vulnerable people to live in 'appalling conditions'

Nirpaul Riat has been said to have profited from other's misery Get FREE email updates for West London We have more newsletters Get FREE email updates for West London We have more newsletters A

Nirpaul Riat has been said to have profited from other's misery

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A respected businessman with an OBE has been branded a "rogue landlord" by a West London council for his management of 22 properties where tenants lived in "appalling conditions". Nirpaul Riat was taken to court after being issued an Emergency Prohibition Order by Hounslow Council due to poor conditions in 22 of his properties, and judges fined him £300,000 for the catalogue of issues.

It was found that he had illegally converted houses into flats and rented out outbuildings to vulnerable people, who were forced to live in "terrible conditions". These conditions included damp, squalid rooms with limited natural light, a lack of hot water, heating which only worked irregularly as well as leaks and a mould problem.

Mr Riat was handed the fine by judges at Isleworth Crown Court after "two decades of managing illegally converted houses", which included illegally converting a property into eight flats and renting an outbuilding in Osterley. He now faces being sent to prison if he does not pay the fine.

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The businessman was previously fined £20,000 in 2009 for illegally converting a property in Hanworth into flats. Mr Riat was awarded an OBE ‘for services to Charity and to the Punjabi People’ in 2011 after he raised nearly £50,000 for air ambulance services, Thames Valley Crime Stopper and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

However, having been found to have repeatedly broken the law has prompted Hounslow Council to seek Mr Riat to be stripped of his OBE. Councillor Tom Bruce, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development at Hounslow Council, said: “This landlord treated his tenants as nothing more than a commodity – exploiting residents in need of housing for his own financial gain.

“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.”

Mr Riat has been contacted for comment.

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