http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/s...re/3078500.stm

Thursday, 4 September, 2003

Illegal house extension demolished

The extension has been described as "hideous"
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...tension203.jpg

Workmen have finished demolishing an illegal house extension in Telford
after the owner was jailed for refusing to remove it.

Sylvester Nseowo was jailed for three months in August after he refused
to pull down the unauthorised extension he built to his house.

He has been pursued through the courts by Telford and Wrekin Council for
more than two years since building the addition to his home at Checkley
Lane, St Georges, without planning permission.

Terry Brooks, a structural engineer overseeing the demolition, described
the quality of work as "atrocious".

"There were no foundations to the columns (of the extension) so they
were very unsafe," he told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"We're now taking up the ground floor slabs which in places were about
two inches thick. Now normally on a house you have at least four to six
inches of concrete, quite often with reinforcements. But there were no
reinforcements."

Nseowo had already been given a three-month suspended sentence for
contempt of court at Stoke-on-Trent County Court in June, but was
allowed a month "to come to his senses".

Telford and Wrekin Council had gained a court injunction ordering that
the addition to the home must be pulled down, which led to Nseowo's
conviction in June for contempt of court.

He had also previously been fined £20,000 for ignoring orders to
demolish the extension, which planners have said was unsafe.

Nseowo's neighbours had expressed concern that the extension was
affecting the value of their homes.

Nseowo will be presented with the bill for the demolition work, which
took about two weeks to complete, when he is released from prison.

He is to appeal against his sentence on Thursday.
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Comment:
What a loon, but we are used to loons in uk.legal

I suspect we haven't seen the last of Mr Nseowo

Perhaps somebody should tell him you can't build a house extension in
the UK according to the Nigerian Building Regs. Or perhaps he didn't
bung the building inspector enough? (8-)

Mr J S Tinks