By James Simons-
Essex Rogue landlord, Robert Crow will be jailed unless he arranges a court date he can attend to address his £80k fines. Mr Crow is wanted over huge fines of £80k dished out to him in two separate cases, starting from 2016. The notorious Essex landlord has missed three cases in succession, after citing illness of diarrhea , which has left him too ill to attend his cases.
Diarrhea usually lasts no more than a month to six weeks, and Magistrates are becoming increasingly frustrated with his absence from court. They are usually caused by an underlying gastrointestinal disease
Crow has reportedly been drinking to drown his sorrows, given heavy mortgage arrears on four flats in his depreciated property of an estimated £580,000 property. Crow received a letter from Southend Magistrates Court on Monday, warning him top arrange a court date for a fines hearing for £80k or face being arrested. One of the residents of his property who was present when the letter was opened by mr.Crow tried to sell the abandoned letter to us, but eventually settled for delivery of a Chinese meal for alerting us to the news.
When we eventually got mr. Crow on phone, he fumed:
” these monsters are just trying to give me a heart attack. I have an appeal slated for the 23rd of February for the hearing, and they really need to wait for that. It is the same case involving an HMO, and I have been ill. I have sent them a medical certificate, I don’t know how they can justify wanting to arrest me. When told that the threat of arrest is to make sure he books another court date when he is better to answer his fines, he interjected: ”can you tell me, are on their side, because I thought you were an impartial body that seeks justice. I’ve told you, and also sent a mail to your boss, and some of your other colleagues months ago, telling them that the two cases are one case, but ofcourse, you have decided to go against me, haven’t you”?
”I have an appeal date for the 23rd, they want me to cough up money for anothe rcase on exactly the same charge, can’t you see this is a conspiracy?” Southend Magistrates Court who sent the provisional arrest warrant to Crow’s address told The Eye Of Media.Com : ”it is two separate cases. He was fined for one case in May 2016, and then fined again in September 3rd, 2019. They are separate cases with similar offences, he has to defend both cases”.
Mr. Crow is still battling to find funds for a barrister to represent him on the 23rd, and also has a Council Tax case to answer to, 3 days prior to that. He is owing thousands in Council Tax, but disputes the basis of the fines ” I have told you guys that this is all a conspiracy, I am being victimised by this rogue council. I am going to ask the courts to look into the role Stuart Burrell played in all of this because I have no doubt this is all an evil campaign. I don’t accept the basis of the Council Tax fines or the threats from the courts”.
When asked how much he has actually paid in Council Tax, and how much he thinks he should pay, mr.Crow says the occupants of each flat should pay their individual council tax, but becomes agitated when pressed on the fact he has paid no Council Tax himself in the past year. ”There is no point talking to you if yoiu are against me, he says in an emphatic tone”.
INVESTIGATION
Crow initially contacted this publication himself in 2017 to investigate Southend Council, after being recommended by a friend. He soon fell out with a few members of the team during various discussions and visitations to his property, despite us actually commencing the investigation with Southend Council which included going through copious materials to understand his grievance. Two writers from The Eye Of Media.Com who spoke to him on separate occasions noted that he can’t handle any sort of criticism, and takes offence to anybody who did not agree with him or see things from his view. However, a comment he made to a female writer to visited him was said to have been derogatory to women, and he took offence every time she interrupted him, even when the interruption was brief and necessary.
Today, he offered a letter of apology to her when this was raised this evening, as we discussed the improved, but still unsatisfactory state of the property. We asked him not to bother, but to concentrate on how he will defend his case.
PENSION
His monthly pension of £500 is being used to keep lenders of his back from taking the property, but residents at his property in Devereux Road, Southend say he is loosing his mind, and compelling everyone he comes in contact with to hear his complaints about Southend Council who lodged the court action against him. When asked how much of his £500 a month he lives on, mr.Crow said he was living on approximately £100 a month
His tenants, or lodgers, as he describes them, have not paid him rent for nearly two .months, after his rent takings were stopped by his local Council who are trying to stop him from renting his rooms, following the fines which he cannot pay. Mr.Crow has threatened to kick them out before Christmas, but is still living with them in the first week of February, after they refused to leave his property, telling him he must take them to court.Whilst in his property, mr.Crow says his residents have been stealing from him, and claims to have had his mobile phone , cd’s and working tools stolen from him.
Why they are still there if they are paying no rent is anyone’s guess. A man who claimed to be a friend of mr.Crow who didn’t want to be named came on the phone and said: ” I think he is scared of his own shadow. I don’t understand why he hasn’t booted them out a long time ago. I don’t think he can deal with all the problems on his own, he has sometimes relied on his residents to take his medical certificate to the courts, so I think he is worried about feeling lonely. He has been advised by all an sundry to sell up, but I don’t think he can handle leaving alone.
The contract of his tenants have long expired, and there is no reason he should not be able to eject them, despite their objections. How he does that is something he has to figure out.