Inside the three-bed bungalow where a 'rogue' landlord housed 15 people in tiny rooms and 'put lives at risk'

A rogue landlord who admitted turning a three-bedroom bungalow into a unlicensed 15-room house has been sentenced by a judge. Nursery assistant Mona Jetwani, 53, of St Pauls Road, Egham, confessed to housing 15 people inside the property in Surrey, and admitted 10 charges against her under the Housing Act 2004.

When entering the building, council workers found 'shoddy' construction methods had been used to create 15 spaces, including four in the loft space, and three which could only be accessed by going out of the building and back in through separate doors.

None of the rooms were big enough to be of legal size for occupation and there was just one small kitchen and only two bathrooms. Access to showers and toilets also did not meet the requirements of an HMO.

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When workers spoke to tenants they found evidence of up to 15 people living in the building, who were paying between £85 and £125 per week to live in the bungalow.

On 27 November, the same judge who heard the case, District Judge Cooper, sitting at Staines Magistrates’ Court, ruled that Jetwani should be fined £12,000 and ordered to pay a £2,000 victim surcharge. The fine was initially set at £18,000 but was reduced by the judge due to Jetwani’s early guilty plea.

Jetwani was prosecuted by Runnymede Borough Council, after it was alerted by anonymous tip offs that the bungalow was being illegally used as an unlicensed house of multiple occupancy. Jetwani and her brother initially became aggressive and threatened to make complaints when council staff tried to visit the property to find out how many people lived there. They claimed they would undress a baby to