Developer behind unauthorised property conversion ordered to pay more than £400k

A Westminster City Council prosecution has seen a developer ordered to pay more than £400,000 in fines and costs after it ignored an enforcement notice issued over changes that were made to a property without planning permission.

Sheikh Behaeddin Adil and his company, HAAB Development Limited, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the planning enforcement notice at Southwark Crown Court last month.

The council issued the notice in 2016 after planning enforcement officers found that the developer had converted the property from a shop with three residential flats into a shop with seven studio or one-bed flats.

The works to the property, which is situated in a conservation area, involved rear extensions to the ground floor and first floor as well as internal rearrangements.

The enforcement notice required the owner to convert the property back to its original state by November 2016.

However, the owner failed to comply with the notice, and in January 2020, the council decided it was in the public interest to prosecute the freehold company and its director.

The enforcement notice was finally complied with in February 2023, with the company and director contesting the prosecution, claiming they were unaware of the local authority's concerns about the breach of planning control.

At the sentencing hearing last month, both were issued fines of £9,750 each and told to pay £50,000 towards the council's prosecution costs. This is in addition to the proceeds of crime order.

Cllr Geoff Barraclough, Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development, said: "Planning Enforcement is there to protect and prevent harm to our historic built environment such as the much loved Queens Park Conservation Area.

"We are clear that enforcement notices will be served and must be complied with if a building owner goes ahead with development without  getting planning permission first."

Adam Carey