By Ashley Young-
Rogue Landlord Robert Crow has presented a convicted former Council Housing manager as the reason he believes a total Council Tax debt of over £3,000 should be disregarded.
Crow who was due to appear in Southend Magistrates Court today in the first of a series of Council Tax debts, caught a cab to the court where he handed a letter and a medical certificate covering a prolonged illness of diarrhea which he says he has suffered from intermittently for the past month. The 69 year old landlord claims Stuart Burrell, jailed for 18 months a fortnight ago for defrauding Southend Council of £300,000 was the chief man directing and supervising an alleged campaign against him which has led to a total fine of over £80,000 in total given to him by Magistrates.
Crow told The Eye Of Media.com that he arrived over an hour before the hearing to inform the court he was to unwell to attend the hearing because his condition is contagious. The strong headed landlord, said to be depreciating in his health due to a poor feeding habit and drinking said Burrell’s conviction turns the case on its head because of the fraudulent nature of his conviction. Crow, who spent the first thirty seconds of our phone call protesting against our continuous description of him as a Rogue landlord was forced to accept our different perceptions about the word.
He said : ”Stuart Burrell was jailed for 18 months in relation to fraud, and this is the guy that was directing the instructions against me. I have written a letter to the court telling them first about my illness with a medical certificate enclosed, and then second, supplying them with a copy of the local Echo paper which reports that Burrell has been jailed for fraud.
He is the guy behind me getting inflated Council Tax bills, he is the one who masterminded the case against me that got me fined nearly £40,000 by Chelmsford Magistrates in 2016 and £44,000 last September. I can’t pay council Tax for self contained flats, whilst I have been convicted in the courts under an Hmo. The court will have time to consider my issues which I will present in the next hearing when my health would have been better.
I am really being drained by all this, I think they want me to have a heart attack. Burrell’s Conviction may be a point of reference in Crow’s next hearing, but he will have to really base his defence on why he thinks the council tax bill against him is wrong. Mr Crow says he will demand an examination into the precise role Burrell has played in his long battle with Southend Council, and use it in some of the legal battle that awaits him when he gets better.
A lodger at Crow’s property the landlord’s condition appeared to have got better for three days, but he started drinking heavily again and still lives on baked beans, bread and eggs.
Broke Landlord: Robert Crow
Insisting on anonymity, the man in his 30’s said:
” he was better for a few days, but has been accepting free brandy from Darius( another lodger in the property), who is trying to sweet him up because he owes lots of rent. The guy(Mr.Crow) is suffering from depression, he keeps talking about how his wife has recently sold a property he lost to her during their divorce, which she recently sold for £950,000. He is broke, and she isn’t helping him financially at all. She thinks he should help himself. She offered to buy one of his flats worth £170,000 for £100,000, but he saw the offer as an insult from her.
”None of his family talk to him, except his brother. He was in Darius’s room the other day for about an hour necking brandy, which Darius probably stole. The man gave mr. Crow £100 last week, his first in two months”. His notice for eviction has expired, but mr.Crow is hanging on to every penny he can get from the only one of his lodgers paying rent. The rest of them were due out of the property last month, but still remain there. Why?
”Everybody blames him for their housing benefit being stopped, so are refusing to go.He has been spending a lot of time in his room sleeping, after chatting about his life story from one person’s room to another. I think he is depressed and may drink himself to death”
Crow insists his drinking is being exaggerated, and said his drinking is under control in moderation. When asked why his voice was slightly slurring, he raised his voice in anger and shouted : ”my voice is not slurring, I have told you I am not well. Just because I have a few drinks does not mean I have an alcohol problem. I reject that claim”. His Council Tax case has been adjourned to the same court in a month’s time, February 23rd.