A businessman who had been awarded an OBE is described by Harrow Council as a “rogue landlord” for his ‘criminal’ management of 22 properties where tenants had to put up with “appalling conditions”.

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Nirpaul Riat finally appeared in court after the council issued an Emergency Prohibition Order because of the awful conditions and continual issues with his properties he was renting out and was fined £300,000 by judges.

The court heard Riat had failed to apply to the council for converting houses into flats and had also rented outbuildings to susceptible people who were made to live in “terrible conditions”. The tenants had to live in what was described as squalid rooms with very little natural light, damp, a lack of hot water, heating which at many times failed to work, leaks and mould throughout.

The judges at Isleworth Crown Court handed the fine to Mr Riat after “two decades of managing illegally converted houses”, and if unable to pay the fine he will serve a prison sentence.

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

Now it has been proven that the business man has repeatedly broken the law Hounslow Council is now calling 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.