Inside the tiny cramped London apartment that rogue landlord stuffed EIGHTEEN tenants into for £800 a MONTH
Rogue landlord fined over £150,000 after forcing tenants to live in shocking bedsits with no fire alarms or ceiling lights
A ROUGE landlord who crammed 18 tenants into a dangerous west London flat near Sir Winston Churchill's house has been fined more than £150,000.
Abbas Rasul, 64, was raking in almost £15,000 a MONTH by letting out the dodgy apartment in a Grade II-listed building in plush Kensington.
Despite being situated on leafy Hyde Park Gate -- home to embassies and mega-rich residents -- the apartment was severely overcrowded.
It was divided using thin pieces of plasterboard to create 14 bedsits occupied by 18 people.
There were no fire doors, smoke detectors or alarms in the dangerous hovel, which only had one kitchen to cater to all the residents.
It was also a serious fire hazard, with its unserviced gas boiler being found to have a cracked flue.
There was no ceiling lights, meaning rooms were lit through lamps plugged into masses of extension chords that ran through the whole property.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has issued a Prohibition Order preventing the flat from being occupied because of the danger it poses.
On average tenants were paying £800 per month to live in one of the bedsits at Flat 3, 36 Hyde Park Gardens.
Just a few doors down at number 28 is the house where Sir Winston Churchill died in 1965, .
Rasul and his companies Grosvenor Property Investments Ltd and London Victoria Estates Ltd were found guilty at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court of failing to license a House in Multiple Occupation.
They were also found to be in breach of 22 housing regulations.
Rasul and his companies were fined a combined total of £162,000 and ordered to pay £3,498 in costs.
Deputy council leader Rock Feilding-Mellen said: "This type of landlord has no place anywhere and in Kensington and Chelsea we will do our utmost to crack down on them.
"Tenants were living in crowded conditions created by illegal and unsafe alterations.
"I am very pleased that following a thorough investigation by our officers the court has handed down this sentence."
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