A DIVORCED couple who converted their Harrow home into four cramped flats to rent them out at inflated prices have been hit with a £10,000 fine.

Shahid Bawa and Aysha Wahab divided the house in Courtfield Crescent into flats without permission from Harrow Council, renting them out at a rate of £925 a month.

The pair, who have now separated, ignored council enforcement notices and stood trial at Harrow Magistrates on Wednesday, June 9.

Wahab, 60, who still lives at Courtfield Crescent, admitted guilty during the trial and was fined £2,500 with £2,00 court costs.

Her ex-husband Bawa, 56, of Farndale Crescent, Greenford, denied the offence throughout and was ordered to pay £3,000 and £3,000 costs.

Council officers were alerted to the planning breach when neighbours complained, and ordered the couple to restore the house to its former layout.

When they failed to do so, despite repeated warnings, they were hauled before the courts.

Councillor Keith Ferry, in charge of planning at the council, said: “We will not tolerate these illegal conversions in Harrow and work to protect the rights of private tenants, often acting on information provided by nearby residents.

“The planning laws are there to protect the character of our streets too and I hope this case sends out a stark warning to anyone thinking of flouting them.”

The enforcement action against the couple began under the previous Tory administration. Councillor Joyce Nickolay, new Conservative spokesman for planning, welcomed the prosecution but added: “It's rather surprising to see Cllr Ferry acting tough on this issue, when it was actually Labour's disastrous Unitary Development Plan from 2004 that opened the floodgates to this sort of illegal conversion in the first place."