Gang of criminal landlords sentenced to hefty fines after running unlicensed HMOs in Northampton

Eight criminal landlords have been fined more than £400,000 for operating 14 unlicensed houses in multiple occupation (HMO) in Northampton.

West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) Private Sector Housing Team began investigating the gang and their activities in 2019 and attended the properties under a Housing Warrant in September 2020 and January 2021 after concerns were raised over safety.

WNC says the five individuals used a range of false and misleading documents to acquire properties from high street letting agents, purporting to be taking on properties for themselves as single family properties before converting them to HMOs. They then set up companies to handle the rent payments between themselves, the tenants and the property owners.

During sentencing last week (Thursday, March 23) at Northampton Magistrates Court, the District Judge said that this was a “deliberate, large-scale operation of falsity” and that the defendants broke safety laws with “no regard to the safety of the tenants, engineered solely for financial gain and profit”.

The fines

Alexsejs Cugurovs, aged 33, of St Leonards Road, was fined £270,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs.

Maxims Borozdins, aged 37, of Lion Court, was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,000.

Valdims Oblikovs, aged 33, of Riga, Latvia, who was fined £2,000.

Karlis Cernihs, aged 35, of Wyclife Road, was also fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs.

Dimitri Vinconschii, aged 26 of Salisbury Street, was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs.

Three companies were also fined:

Charlex Limited, of Anne Street, London, was fined £4,000.

Convid Limited, of Salisbury Street, Northampton, was fined £3,000.

Civon Limited, also of Salisbury Street, was fined £5,000.

Councillor Adam Brown deputy leader of WNC and Cabinet Member for Housing, Culture and Leisure, said: “This was a well-planned, cunning and conniving scheme for the purposes of financial gain.

“I am pleased the court has imposed a substantial fine which will hopefully deter rogue landlords and persuade them to comply with the law in future.

“While the Housing Team cannot visit every property, we won’t hesitate to step in when we have evidence of wrongdoing.”

Housing concerns can be reported to the council via a dedicated page on its website.