Lettings agents found guilty of 10-year campaign of terror
Mother and son convicted after four-week trial into targeting 26 tenants
A landlady used violence, theft and vandalism to illegally evict her tenants in a 10-year campaign of abuse, a jury has ruled.
Victims in Margate saw locks changed, toilets smashed, flooring removed, electricity sabotaged and masked men ordering them to leave.
Sohila Tamiz, 67, also helped organise a gang of 10 to douse one resident in petrol and smash his teeth, the trial at Canterbury Crown Court heard.
Residents of the flats in Athelstan Road told jurors during the four-week trial they were forced to go without heating and were evicted after falsely having drugs pinned on them.
Prosecutors said the offending took place over 10 years between 2011 and 2021, where the private lettings company plotted against 26 tenants.
In total, residents in 10 properties were subjected to breaches of the Protection of Eviction Act, with many illegally evicted, prosecutors said.
Sohila Tamiz, 66, her son Pedram Tamiz, 47, – both from Lenham – Kasem El Darrat, 53, and Adam McChesney, 39, denied all charges relating to conspiracy to unlawfully evict.
But a jury of 10 delivered unanimous guilty verdicts on Tuesday after days of deliberation, following what is understood to be the largest trial of its kind.
Over the past four weeks, residents living in the Olympia Homes properties told jurors of their harrowing experiences.
Anke Angelova, a Bulgarian national, spoke of her horror after moving into a one-bedroom flat in Athelstan Road.
She, her children and mother took the property having not seen it, after signing a tenancy agreement and handing over £1,300.
“It was in a very bad condition. There was mould on the walls, the windows were broken and they couldn’t close properly,” Ms Angelova said, with the help of an interpreter.
“The boiler was not working we had no heating.”
Ms Angelova said she and her children were forced to use the kitchen stove for warmth, while they went without heating from November 2020 to January 2021.
Then, when she returned to Bulgaria in July, Olympia Homes letting agents destroyed her bathroom floor, she said.
She said her mother and children were turfed out onto the street and the keys were taken.
On entering the premises “the flooring was completely destroyed”, she told jurors.
“Apart from destroying the flooring they also stopped the water - they also took away the electricity fob.
“I was in the flat for a monthand-a-half with my children and
‘The boiler was not working - we had no heating’
no electricity.”
Ms Angelova said after Thanet District Council supplied a new pre-payment key, the electricity cut off “four or five times”.
Julie Box Beaumont, a grandmother, told how masked men threatened her and her partner into fleeing their flat during the Christmas of 2017.
She said the two balaclava-clad thugs became aggressive, after appearing on their landing in Athelstan Road, saying they had sabotaged the power supply.
In her desperation to get to safety, she left behind presents for her grandchildren and a sentimental collection of teddy bears.
And her partner, ex-Army veteran Stephen Dale, lost his war medals, which cost £500 to replace, Ms Box-Beaumont explained.
When prosecutors asked Ms Box-Beaumont if she felt scared, she replied: “I wasn’t scared, I was absolutely petrified, and I’m still having nightmares about it to this day.”
The court heard 10 men barged into Carl Hopkins’s home, doused him in petrol and beat him, causing him to lose three teeth.
The next day Mr Hopkins’ locks had been changed, forcing him to live in an abandoned caravan, the court was told.
Sohila told the jury she had no part in illegal evictions, telling jurors “we are not crazy people”.
When prosecutor Michael Polak asked if she ordered 10 men to barge into Carl Hopkin’s home, douse him in petrol, beat him, causing him to lose three teeth, she replied: “It’s not true. It is a story which you are putting that is not true Mr Polak.”
Mr Polak continued: “Young men turned up with bats - nothing to do with you?”
“Nothing to do with me,” she replied.
She argued her firm Olympia Homes had no hierarchy, no boss, and the atmosphere in her buildings was “very nice”.
Prosecutors played phone footage to jurors, showing Sohila gesturing repeatedly and raising her voice towards a tenant. Sohila denied the prosecution’s claim that she could be heard using the word “scum” three times towards the occupier.
Sohila was convicted of 14 charges including conspiracy to interfere with the peace and comfort of the residential occupier, conspiracy to unlawfully evict and conspiracy to burgle.
Pedram was convicted of seven charges, including conspiracy to interfere with the peace and comfort of the residential occupier and conspiracy to unlawfully evict.
They were acquitted of two charges each.
McChesney, of Gloucester Avenue, Margate, was convicted of five charges.
El Darrat, of Athelstan Road, Margate was convicted of conspiracy to interfere with the peace or comfort of the residential occupier and conspiracy to unlawfully evict.– and acquitted on a further two charges.
Sentencing is due to take place in October.