Landlord let immigrant workers live in squalor

SQUALOR: washing hanging above the urinal in the gents toilets

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

A landlord who allowed a group of worlers to sleep in squalid conditions on the floor of his former pub has been ordered to pay £4,800 in fines and costs by Oldham magistrates.

Mohammed Aslam (76) pleaded guilty to 11 offences under the Housing Act 2004 and was ordered to pay £2,200 with £2,600 costs.

Police told environmental health officers the men were staying at the Smut Inn in Manchester Road, on the Werneth and Chadderton border.

Officers, police and firefighters visited the premises last July 1 when the owner had arrived back at the pub with the men, all of them his employees.

Officials found the unheated pub had been crudely partitioned to make bedrooms. Washing was limited to the original pub toilets, there was no bath or shower and the pub kitchen was boarded up. There were no fire alarms and the fire exits and escape routes were blocked.

But while his tenants lived in squalor, Aslam lived on the first floor - which had been renovated to a high standard.

When interviewed, the men — mainly from Eastern Europe - said they worked for Aslam picking coriander in North Wales and East Yorkshire. They were taken in the back of a van and paid £30 a day - of which Aslam took a day’s pay a week for electricity.

Officials made a prohibition order to insist a fire alarm system be installed or the workers moved out.

A follow-up visit in September revealed no system had been installed.