One illegally converted a single house into nine flats, from which he raked in an estimated £100,000 a year in rent. Another crammed 12 tenants into a property meant for five, with some sleeping in storerooms. A third flouted fire safety regulations; when a blaze broke out, a man narrowly escaped with his life.

These are just three rogue landlords who have been sentenced by magistrates over the past six weeks. In the past two years, more than 3,000 landlords have faced enforcement action and even prosecution, the government said this week.

But campaigners claim these cases are the tip of an iceberg – and that too many rogue landlords who break the law either evade justice or are let off with little more than a slap on the wrist.

It is still all too easy for rogue landlords to take advantage of tenants, argues Campbell Robb, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter. “Every day we hear from families in homes that put their health at risk or are downright dangerous. Although it’s promising to see the government taking steps to address the issue, they need to go further – from introducing a register of landlords, to further equipping local authorities with the resources to crack down on rogue landlords for good.”

Figures released this summer following a freedom of information case against the Ministry of Justice, showed that there were just 2,006 convictions of rogue landlords between 2006 and 2014. The resulting fines totalled £3m – less than £1,500 per conviction.

While Andreas Stavrou Antoniades, the landlord who converted a north London terrace house into nine flats, was given a maximum £20,000 fine, this was the equivalent of little more than two months rent from one property. Campaign group Generation Rent has claimed that criminal landlords rake in £5bn in rent a year.



The government insists, however, that a raft of measures due to take effect in the coming months should make it easier for local councils to bring criminal landlords to justice.



This month ministers proposed a national minimum bedroom size this month as part of a drive to stop landlords carving up houses into ever smaller rooms, while on Wednesday the government announced the 65 worst-affected councils would be able to apply for a share of a new £5m fund. That money, aimed at cracking down on rogue landlords and tackling the problem of “beds in sheds”, can be used to carry out more raids or demolish illegal outbuildings, among other things.

In addition, new rules set out in the housing bill currently going through parliament will create a database of landlords and letting agents convicted of certain offences; banning orders for “the most prolific and serious offenders”; new civil penalties of up to £5,000 for breaches; and a more stringent “fit and proper” person test for landlords.



The general public will not have access to the new database – it will be used by local authorities and central government. The Department for Communities and Local Government does not hold a list of rogue landlords centrally, though individual councils frequently publicise cases on their websites and free newspapers.



Some of the worst recent offenders …

• Andreas Stavrou Antoniades, 74, illegally converted a house near Finsbury Park in north London into separate flats. On 21 October he was ordered to pay a £20,000 fine – the maximum magistrates could impose – plus £1,500 in costs and charges after being prosecuted by Haringey council. He will also have to foot the bill for converting the building into three more spacious flats that meet council guidelines.



Tottenham magistrates were told Antoniades ignored repeated demands from council enforcement officers to stop using the property as separate flats, and made an estimated £9,000 a month from letting them out. A repeat offender, he had already been found guilty of a similar offence three years ago, when he received a £13,500 fine.

When contacted by the Guardian, Antoniades – who has other rental properties – defended his decision to convert the house into nine flats: “In this borough there are an awful lot of single people who prefer to have their own self-contained little studio.” He said landlords “are not charitable organisations – they have to make a profit out of it,” adding that with all the attendant costs and pressures, the only way to make some money “is to do the smaller units which unfortunately the council doesn’t like”.

He also claimed that £9,000 a month was not what he actually received. “You have vacant periods [and] you lose a lot of money from bad debts. They don’t take into account that.”



Leo Ippolito. Photograph: Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record

• Leonardo Ippolito, from Ayr in western Scotland, was accused by his local council of operating “houses of horror” and choosing “to put profit above anything else”.

The myriad hazards identified at his properties included water coming through a light socket, exposed electrics and an open trench around one property.



On 2 March this year, Ippolito, 56, was banned from operating as a landlord by South Ayrshire council, the first action of its kind taken by the authority. He has three convictions for offering rental homes for multiple tenants (called homes in multiple occupation, or HMOs) without a licence.



One of Leo Ippolito’s properties. Photograph: Alasdair MacLeod/Daily Record

One of Ippolito’s flats in Ayr – rented out to the father of a toddler, who lived with him part of the week – had water coming through a light socket and a first floor bedroom door leading to a sheer drop down to ground level. At another, there were bars on the windows of the child’s bedroom and bathroom which could potentially have put lives at risk, and evidence of a previous fire in the property, with soot covering the boiler.



He and the council had been battling for years over the state of his “numerous” rental properties, but at Ayr sheriff court he submitted an undertaking that he had exhausted his right of appeal and agreed not to pursue any further action. This means it will become a criminal offence for him to operate as a landlord.

Stanley Rogers. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/EMPICS Sports Photo Agency

• Stanley John Rodgers was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for five years in 2004 after the death of two of his former tenants – both teenagers – from carbon monoxide poisoning.

However, he was able to continue operating as a landlord, and was back in court this year after renting out a house that was so hazardous – the rear exit door was locked with no key available, and the electrics were in a dangerous state – that his local council shut down the property. Five people were living in the property, including a pregnant woman.



At Great Yarmouth magistrates court in August, 74-year-old Rodgers, who lives in the town, pleaded guilty to a variety of offences and was fined £13,333. He was also told to pay costs of £2,427 plus a £120 victim surcharge.



• Zuo Jun He made more than £26,000 a year by squeezing 12 tenants into a flat above a Chinese restaurant in Watford. He was fined £30,000 plus £5,476 costs this month after pleading guilty to overcrowding .

Some of the bedrooms were so small that they were listed as storerooms. Council officials said they had been told the landlord cleared the property before inspections to make it appear there were fewer people living there. When the inspectors departed the landlord moved the tenants back in or brought in new ones.



The tenants shared one small kitchen, described as filthy when the council arrived, and the fire exit was obstructed. Despite that, the council ruled that Zuo Jun He could remain a landlord, although he would not gain a future HMO licence. He has since evicted all the tenants.

• Andrew Panayi, one of Britain’s most controversial landlords, who lets out 180 properties mostly on the Caledonian Road near King’s Cross in north London, has been ordered to repay £70,000 in rent under the Proceeds of Crime Act.



Last month, Panayi pleaded guilty to renting out an unlicensed basement for £975 a month, despite an earlier council ruling that it was “an unsatisfactory and substandard unit of residential accommodation” with “inadequate light and outlook and poor living environment”.



He was also fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £15,900 costs by a judge at Blackfriars crown court. The action was taken by Islington council, which sought a confiscation order of £103,000 reflecting 14 years worth of rent. That was negotiated down to £70,000.



Accounts filed last year showed Panayi’s company, Ploughcane, had net assets of £17m and a 2013 turnoverof £2.7m - of which £2.3m was profit. Panayi was featured in a 2012 BBC documentary about the area, in which he boasted of flouting planning procedures and talked of “milking” his properties.

Katia Goremsandu, who has seven convictions for housing offences. Photograph: Tom Wall/EHN

• Katia Goremsandu was described as “the UK’s worst landlord” after it emerged in July this year that she had been convicted seven times for housing offences and fined a total of £16,565.



Goremsandu owns several rental properties in Haringey, north London, and the local council has estimated her rental income at £188,000 a year, including housing benefit payments.



The council said it had taken action against her “for a range of issues relating to disrepair and the poor state of properties she rents out”. In 2014, Goremsandu was prosecuted for putting tenants at risk by covering a warning light on a faulty fire alarm with a black sticker in a house converted into seven flats in Tottenham.

In 2012, she was convicted for leaving tenants without heating for prolonged periods during winter. In the same year a conviction for letting a damp house for more than a year was upheld at a crown court.

• Ishaq Hussein rented out a house converted into flats that had no working fire alarm, no firefighting equipment, no emergency lighting and inadequate fire escape routes, “placing tenants at risk of serious injury or death,” according to Reading council.



In September, Hussein – who controls a number of rental properties – was jailed for four months after admitting 12 charges relating to fire safety, and ordered to pay £9,876 costs.

