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Suspended sentence for managing agent who cemented over water supply
Original Author: Graham Norwood
A managing agent who tried to force out his tenants by filling the stopcock chamber with cement so that they would have no running water has been given an eight month suspended prison sentence.
Gurdial Singh Bains admitted four charges relating to a home he was managing on behalf of a relative in Sandy, Bedfordshire.
At Luton Crown Court he was given the suspended prison sentence, ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid community service and handed a three-month curfew from 9pm to 7am each day.
An investigation by Central Bedfordshire council found that he had failed to issue a tenancy agreement to the tenants at the semi-detached house in Sandy and when he wanted them to leave he failed to give them adequate notice to vacate.
Instead, he tried to force them out by attempting to change the locks and also filling the stopcock chamber with cement so that they would have no running water, before parking his car over the water mains.
However, council officers and the water authority were able to restore the supply within 24 hours.
Bains pleaded guilty to four counts under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. His prosecution followed his mother, Jaspal Kaur Bains, being prosecuted in relation to the same property 12 months earlier.
She was prosecuted for failing to supply the council with documents relating to the tenancies, failing to issue a tenancy agreement and not giving the tenant her contact details.
After pleading guilty to four offences under the Local Government Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1976 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 she was ordered to pay a total of £4,313.24 in fines, court costs and a victim surcharge.
