Couple told to tear down the house they disguised as garage

 A couple who disguised a house as a garage and lived in it for four years have been ordered to tear it down.

After buying a crumbling house fit only for demolition, Jackie Shearsby, 55, and Peter Hickinbotham, 68, built the two-bed residence in the garden in Long Itchington, Warks.

Mr Hickinbothom said he hoped to take advantage of rules whereby planning permission can be obtained retrospectively after the structure has been in place for four years, but the local council said the home had been deliberately concealed.

The couple lived in the building for more than four years from April 2012 until they were caught out when they contacted planners themselves last December to apply for retrospective permission to turn the garage into a “habitable residential dwelling”.

After the court hearing, Mr Hickinbotham said: “They said I don’t pay council tax. I knew I’d always got to pay that, that was in the back of my mind.”