‘A recent ruling by the High Court in London has highlighted the benefits to businesses of using freezing orders to protect and recover assets, as well as the willingness of the courts in England and Wales to support the enforcement of judgments, experts in civil fraud and asset recovery have said.’
OUT-LAW.com, 19th February 2021
Source: www.pinsentmasons.com
‘An allegation of an offence in an information or charge must describe the offence in ordinary language and make it clear what the prosecutor alleges. Amendments to section 179 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) mean that it is no longer necessary, when prosecuting a defendant for non-compliance with an enforcement notice, to aver within the information the date upon which the period of compliance expired. The court held that the exact moment at which the compliance period expired was no longer of critical or defining importance. It is a necessary inference within an information that the date upon which the offence is said to have been committed, occurred after the period of compliance had expired. The prosecutor would still need to prove as a fact that the date for compliance had expired, but this fact was not essential to enable the defendant to understand what the prosecutor was alleging.’
5SAH, 16th February 2021
Source: www.5sah.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has rejected a company director’s appeal over penalties amounting to £99,000 imposed by the Upper Tribunal for breaches of regulations covering houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), and non-compliance with enforcement notices.’
Local Government Lawyer, 13th January 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A Welsh council has won an appeal to the Divisional Court over a ruling that informations it laid under s.179 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 were defective.’
Local Government Lawyer, 6th January 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘This case involved an appeal against a fine and a confiscation order following criminal proceedings for breach of an enforcement notice served under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990). The appellant, Mr Roth, had converted a property into 12 self-contained flats without prior planning permission. His appeal against sentence was successful; insufficient credit had been given for his guilty plea in the Crown Court, where the case had been committed for the purposes of confiscation. The appeal against the confiscation order was advanced on three grounds: firstly, that the wording of the summons restricted the criminality to one day; secondly, that the rent received was not linked to the breach of the planning legislation; and thirdly, that it was disproportionate for the benefit figure to comprise the gross rental received. All three grounds were dismissed.’
5SAH, 24th August 2020
Source: www.5sah.co.uk
‘Two joint property owners have been found guilty of illegally sub-dividing a building into seven substandard flats in a prosecution brought by the London Borough of Camden.’
Local Government Lawyer, 25th June 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A landlord has failed in a judicial review challenge after he was refused permission to vacate a guilty plea in relation to an enforcement notice, amid claims that a council was improperly motivated by an expected windfall from a confiscation order.’
Local Government Lawyer, 19th June 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A resident who claimed to be a ‘Freeman of the land’ has been fined £15,000 for refusing to remove an unlawfully built extension that covered the whole of his back garden.’
Local Government Lawyer, 6th January 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A landlord who hid families in windowless rooms after claiming to a council that he had complied with an enforcement notice has been fined £25,000 and ordered to pay a further £266,177 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.’
Local Government Lawyer, 26th March 2019
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The wife of Britain’s most controversial buy-to-let landlord, Fergus Wilson, has been ordered to pay £25,000 in fines and legal costs after a court ruled that she had failed to supply hot water to a disabled tenant.’
The Guardian, 12th December 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Ealing Council has obtained a confiscation order of nearly £450,000 against a landlord who ignored enforcement notices over ‘beds in sheds’ at one of her rental properties.’
Local Government Lawyer, 26th November 2018
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The owner of an unauthorised scrap yard in South Staffordshire was last month fined £24,000 and ordered to pay court costs of £28,280 at Birmingham Crown Court.’
Local Government Lawyer, 12th November 2018
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has rejected a claim that a fine and a £4m-plus proceeds of crime order made over a planning case in Ealing should be overturned because the defendant was impersonated in the magistrates’ court.’
Local Government Lawyer, 7th February 2018
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A landlord has failed in an appeal against a claim by the London Borough of Newham that she ignored enforcement notices related to her property, having argued that she had delegated all responsibility for the property concerned to her husband.’
Local Government Lawyer, 12th July 2017
Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A council’s bid to obtain a confiscation order over planning enforcement breaches has been halted after a ruling that the indication of pleas of guilty on the two defendants’ behalf and in their presence by counsel appearing for them in the magistrates’ court was an incurable error.’
Local Government Lawyer, 19th May 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Pensions Regulator has begun enforcement action against a number of parties including Sir Philip Green after failing to reach a deal to plug BHS’s £571m pension deficit. In a dramatic development, the regulator, which has been in talks with Sir Philip and his Taveta group of companies over the retailer’s pension fund since BHS collapsed in late April, issued a warning notice to the Top Shop entrepreneur setting out why it believes he is liable to support the scheme.’
Daily Telegraph, 2nd November 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Charmaine Moore a Romani Gypsy and a single mother of 3 dependent children. She and one of her daughters are disabled. She owns and occupies land in the London Borough of Bromley. In 2010 she applied for planning permission to live on her land. That application has still to be determined finally. The application was a modest one “change of use – private Gypsy and Traveller Caravan Site comprising pitch, accommodating one mobile home and one touring caravan”. She has never sought more.’
Full story (PDF)
No. 5 Chambers, 24th April 2015
Source: www.no5.com
‘On Friday, 27th March, the Supreme Court handed down a decision which will be as much of interest to public lawyers as information rights practitioners alike. Evans, a journalist for the Guardian newspaper utilised the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 to seek the disclosure of letters sent by Prince Charles to seven government departments between September 2004 and March 2005. The departments refused to disclose the letters (so-called “black spider” memos on account of the Prince’s handwriting) on the basis that they were exempt from doing so. In their view the letters represented private correspondence which effectively allowed the Prince to prepare for “kingship.” Evans subsequently complained to the Information Commissioner who upheld the refusal before appealing to the Information Tribunal. The Tribunal held that many of the letters should be disclosed as they constituted “advocacy correspondence.”’
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 31st March 2015
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
Regina (Wingrove) v Stratford-on-Avon District Council [2015] EWHC 287 (Admin); [2015] WLR (D) 65
‘The wide discretionary power to refuse to determine a retrospective planning application for development subject to an enforcement notice under section 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 was intended to provide local planning authorities with a tool to prevent such applications being used to delay enforcement action being taken against development. An applicant’s motive to use a retrospective application to cause such delay would clearly be a consideration in favour of a decision to invoke that discretion.’
WLR Daily, 12th February 2015
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘The High Court has issued a ruling that clarifies the scope of a local authority’s power to decline to determine a retrospective planning application when an enforcement notice is in place. The case of Wingrove v Stratford on Avon District Council [2015] EWHC 287 (Admin) was the first time the ambit of s. 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 had been considered.’
Local Government Lawyer, 12th February 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
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