An agent who is also a landlord has been hit with a £6,200 bill for letting 11 people share a property licensed for just ive.

Carl Afilaka, who runs Christopher Stanley Letting Agents in Bicester, Oxfordshire, failed to turn up for the court hearing where he was fined £3,500 and ordered to pay costs of £2,700.

The court heard conditions in the property in Oxford were unacceptable.

A council report revealed the state of the house, including bathroom which was “extremely damp and exhibited a lot of mould”, an insecure back door, “draughty rotten wooden-framed windows”, a kitchen which had fallen to “disrepair” and a garden piled with rubbish.

Bob Price, leader of the city council, said: “We will not hesitate to take legal action against landlords and agents who just collect high rents  whilst failing to repair and maintain their properties. The expected standards are very clear – they simply need to be observed.”

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It is not the first time that Afilaka has found himself in the news.

Ten months ago, a landlord claimed that she was owed £20,000, and walked up and down the local high street with a sandwich board warning others against the agent. The story featured on the first TV series of ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords” .

The claim was strenuously denied by the letting agency, but was carried on the TV series ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords’.

However, there is a glowing write-up of a firm called Christopher Stanley Estate and Letting Agents, in Bicester, on Trevor Mealham’s INEA site, emphasising the firm’s reputation for providing clients with informed advice, and how it values its integrity and reputation.

Landlord parades sandwich board up and down high street in protest against agent