A rogue landlord has been ordered to pay a £1.44 million Proceeds of Crime penalty fine following a ten year dispute with a London council for repetitively breaking planning laws.

Ali Bahbahani has to pay £1,283,444 for converting a home into flats, which also involved building an unapproved extension in Ealing, west London.

Not only had he failed to receive planning consent from the council he had blatantly refused to stop letting the property out to renters whilst failing to demolish the illegal extensions.

Ealing council was awarded the confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Over the past ten years the council had to repeatedly issue court applications for the house to have the extensions demolished so the property was taken back to its original condition.

During this time the case was held at a number of courts before the case was finally ruled on at Isleworth Crown Court, what also came to light is that Bahbahani did not actually appear in any of the previous hearings as someone else impersonated the landlord as he lives abroad.

A council spokesperson says: “You must make sure you have planning permission for major changes of any sort to your property. Failure to do so will result in court action and, as we have seen, can be very costly.”

Ealing council will also be going after £16,000 plus for unpaid business rates and council tax and will be working with a receiver to recover the unpaid debts.