Tenants evicted for drugs offences and fined for playing loud music
Residents of the White City Estate will be able to live in peace after two tenants, who were using their council homes as crack dens, were evicted and one was fined for persistently playing loud music.
Occupants of Ellenborough House and Carteret House had to tolerate junkies urinating in stairwells and disposing of their used needles in corridors on an almost daily basis.
Following a joint operation by the police and local council, the Ellenborough House crack den was closed at the end of last year and the Carteret House property was raided in January 2008.
Crack House Closure Orders were granted by the court, preventing anyone from entering or living in either property for three months.
The council has now been granted possession of the properties and both tenants have been evicted.
In a separate incident, a White City man who played Bob Marley records throughout the night, stopping his neighbours from sleeping, has been fined and given an indefinite ASBO (anti-social behaviour order), less than a year after he was fined for the same offence.
Persistent record-spinner, Wilfred Barton, of Hargraves House, Australia Road on the White City Estate, ignored his neighbours’ pleas for him to be quiet for nearly three years.
Barton was ordered to pay a fine of £500 and £300 towards the council's costs, as well as a £15 victim support surcharge. The council also seized a stereo, speakers and their cables, along with 300 vinyl records, 16 CDs and 107 cassettes.
The judge also granted an ASBO against Barton, preventing him from causing noise nuisance to his neighbours, which has no time limit.
If Barton plays loud music through the night again, he could face up to five years in jail.
19 May 2008