An Oxford landlord was ordered to pay £180 for unlawfully evicting his tenant and £300 for a campaign of harassment against him when he appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Monday 12 October 2015.
He was also ordered to pay £1,000 in costs to the City Council.
The Court heard that Mr Riasat Ali, of Howard Street, carried out a campaign of sustained harassment against the tenant at the Marston Street property that he owns before unlawfully evicting him and making him homeless.
Between April and June 2014, the court heard, Mr Ali and some of his family members repeatedly threatened the tenant with violence and on 5 June 2014, Mr Ali locked his tenant out of his home by changing the lock to the front door.
Councillor Mike Rowley, Board Member for Housing and Property Services, says: “I would have liked to have seen a stiffer penalty as we need to send a clear message to rogue landlords that they cannot just take the law into their own hands.
Mr. Ali now has a criminal conviction on his record and that is right. There is a clear legal process for landlords who want to evict their tenants and the courts have rightly taken enforcement action against those who illegally remove tenants from their homes.”
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