By Gavin Mackintosh-
Essex police is hunting a group of teenage thugs who mugged a former rogue landlord on a high street in Essex, normally full of cameras.
Former landlord, Robert Crow,(pictured) was mugged of his mobile phone in Southend High Street last month while walking with a friend.
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The 72-year-old former landlord who is on the verge of homelessness after losing three of his properties on Devereux Road- a distinguished conservatory part of Southend Essex- following numerous court battles with Southend Borough Council, had his phone snatched from him by a teenager riding a bike on Southend High Street. The robber was with around five other youths at the time.
Depressed Mr. Crow who once sought homeless people on the streets to put a roof over their head in his then cockroach infested property, has been without an income for the past two years after Southend Borough Council stopped his benefits and had him convicted by the courts for House of Multiple Occupation breaches, and a breach of an Asbo order.
The vilified former landlord is known to many of the local youths in the drug ridden town for his past brushes with the law over his property. All sorts of individuals have lived in his property over the years.
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Southend in Essex is riddled with a number of delinquents who ride bicycles up and down the high street and play loud music, disturbing the peace of the many law abiding professionals who reside in the town.
They social misfits are said to prey on vulnerable people, robbing them of valuables when least expected, and ridding off.
Already dispossessed of his highly priced property in the conservatory part of Southend Essex on Sea, home to several professionals including teachers, designers and employees in the hospitality sector, the one thing Mr.Crow still had left was his much-needed mobile phone. It was snatched from him without warning on a moth ago.
A distressed Mr.Crow told The Eye Of Media.Com: ‘I was walking on the high street and a teenager riding a bike just snatched a bag from my hand which had my phone in it, he said. Now I have lost all my contacts. I can’t even talk to my daughter or my ex-wife now, because I don’t have their contact.
The teenager was between 14 and 17 years old and about 6ft 3 inches tall. There were about four of them riding bicycles. I heard that about an hour before I was robbed, another man was also robbed”.
CCTV Cameras
Strangely, none of the CCTV cameras in the area captured the robbery. Suspicions that some of the CCTV cameras in the city were not functioning normally at the time raise questions about whether the borough has adequate funding to sustain the reliable performance of the cameras.
Further inquiries about the quality of the CCTV cameras in the borough of Southend revealed that the city just recently received a City-wide upgrade to prevent and monitor crime and anti-social behaviour, with 207 cameras in place across the City.
The upgrade improves the quality of the cameras and their efficiency. It is not known exactly what sparked the upgrade.
Mr. Crow’s loss of mobile phone was more painful for him because he benefited from limited service given a lack of electricity supply in his home.
He has been living in utter darkness for over two years, after energy supplier eon cut off his electricity supplies due to its illegal tampering by the landlord. who was trying to cope with the limited financial supply he had from his £500 monthly pension.
The beleaguered landlord who now eats at soup kitchens for many of the homeless he once accommodated, previously charged his phone for a couple of hours every day at the local pub due to the lack of electricity at his home. The battery usually lasts him barely half a day
Court Battle.
He was engaged in a long battle with Southend Borough Council for a few years and was fined a total of about £100k for HMO breaches, losing two of his properties, and receiving a 2-year suspended sentence at Basildon Crown Court for breaching a Criminal Behavioural Order given to him.
His property was deemed not fit for housing tenants, though his relatively lax assessment increased his vulnerability to homeless people who would constitute a nuisance to his neighbours.
Cops were called to Crow’s property over 50 times in one year, and one of his flats was raided by cops for drugs on one occasion, leading them to find a notorious drug dealing gang from London renting from him. He was unaware of their criminal endeavours at the time.
One of his tenants later served a jail sentence for stabbing another tenant in the neck after the drug addict caught him trying to steal from his belongings.
Routine anti-social behaviour at his property led to several complaints from his neighbours, all of whom were eager to see his business close down-as it eventually was.
Crow now resides on the bottom floor of the five-bedroom property on Devereux Road.
In a drawn-out legal battle with Southend Borough Council ever since he was convicted of breaching HMO regulations in 2016 for which he was fined £39,000, Mr Crow had appealed case after case, in his insistence that he was the victim of a rogue operation by the council, whom he said had conspired against him with the neighbours and the courts to put him out of business.
He was again fined £10,000 in 2021 in the last of his legal battles.
Depression
Crow openly admits he is suffering from chronic depression, having lost successive court battles against Southend Borough Council for HMO and Asbo order breaches . He says he has contemplated suicide a number of times following his plight.
”I am so depressed that the idea of suicide has crossed my mind several times, but I just don’t have the bottle to do it. Everything I worked so hard for has gone down the drain. It’s so painful that I have no inheritance to pass on to my children.
I am so scared of becoming homeless, I don’t know what to do. I can’t even put a deposit down on a property because my credit has been ruined by the monstrous Southend Council. I think they would rather see me dead. but I don’t want to give them that satisfaction”.
He accused Essex police of being prejudicial against him by refusing to eject a tenant who continued to live at the property free, a year after all other tenants had left. Essex police told him the matter was civil.
One of the neighbours who has complained bitterly to the council about Mr.Crow’s property anonymously told this publication:
”As a neighbourhood are very happy that a rogue landlord has been finally closed down and we now have a peaceful road to reside in even though it did take too much time for it to happen.
I am so happy that the awful umbrella has been removed, what an eyesore that has been, now just for the tatty motor bike, the property looks so lovely now apart from the basement flat is an eyesore stil
In relation to whether Mr. Crow will be housed if he became homeless, a Southend Council spokesperson, said:
“It would be inappropriate for us to discuss the personal circumstances of any potential homelessness applicant, but all local authorities follow national legislation and their own local policies when assessing any homelessness application. If and when any application is made, the appropriate steps will be followed by the council.
“In regards to our CCTV system and control room, this is an excellent facility which is staffed 24-7, which is used in partnership with the police to both help deter and detect crime year-round. Any reports of crimes should be reported to Essex Police in the first instance.”
In relation to the mugging, Essex Police said in a statement:
”We received a report that a man in his 70s was assaulted and had his phone stolen in Southend High Street at around 9.30pm on 17 November.
Mr Crow was approached by a group of teenagers outside McDonalds and Mojo Lounge before being assaulted by one of them.
The suspect has been described to us as white, around 6ft 6ins tall with black hair and wearing a shiny padded jacket, black jeans, and trainers.
As part of our investigation, CCTV cameras have been checked but the incident is not captured. The actual workings and maintenance of the cameras will be down to the camera owners.
If you have any information, CCTV, dash cam or other footage in relation to this incident, then please get in contact with us’.
Please quote the crime reference number 42/281990/22.
You can let us know by submitting a report on our website or by using our online Live Chat service available Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) between 10am-9pm.
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