A LETTING agents manager and landlord was fined £6,200 for allowing 11 people to crowd a rotting and rubbish-riddled Oxford house, which was licensed for just five people. 

Oxford City Council said 48-year-old Carl Afilaka, of Siskin Road in Bicester, was prosecuted for "unacceptable" conditions which broke laws designed to protect tenants of shared accommodation.  

The city council said Mr Afilaka, who runs Christopher Stanley Letting Agents in Bicester, failed to turn up for a court hearing where he was prosecuted for the Newman Road property in Littlemore.

He was ordered to pay £3,500 and costs of £2,700 after a local councillor flagged concerns to council officers, who discovered the crammed house in which one room was shared by two young children. 

A council report revealed the gruesome and unsafe state of the house, including bathroom which was "extremely damp and exhibited a lot of mould", an insecure back door, "draughty rotten wooden-framed windows", a kitchen which had fallen to "disrepair" and a garden piled with rubbish. 

Bob Price, leader of the city council, said: “The sorts of conditions in which these tenants were living are unacceptable and are likely to badly affect their health.

"Private sector rents are very high in Oxford and landlords should not break the law by failing to maintain their properties in good condition.

"The city council will not hesitate to take legal action against landlords and agents who just collect high rents  whilst failing to repair and maintain their properties. The expected standards are very clear - they simply need to be observed.”

Mr Afilaka was prosecuted under the city council's HMO (housing in multiple occupation) laws, which were enforced in 2011 to improve quality of housing for sharers.

Any landlord letting out accommodation shared by more than three unrelated tenants must buy a HMO licence and meet strict health and safety regulations. 

Mr Afilaka initially pleaded not guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing and failed to attend Oxford Magistrate’s Court on May 3. The magistrates deemed him guilty in his absence.

So far this year the city council has successfully prosecuted six law-breaking HMO landlords, leading to total fines of £39,000.