Tuesday 2 August 2022 05:27 PM Illegal £1,000-a-month penthouses in Leicester finally destroyed after ... trends now
A millionaire landlord who ignored a court order to destroy his two illegal £1,000-a-month penthouses has finally torn them down after being threatened with jail.
Munjit Dulay's company MB Estates bought St Clements Court, a former care home turned into 74 flats, in Leicester in 2012.
He built two penthouses on top of them in a 'flagrant breach' of planning permission, bringing in thousands of pounds of rent and ignoring a court order demanding their removal.
Dulay, 55, was finally forced to tear the buildings down by Sunday, July 17 after a judge threatened to activate his four-month jail sentence - suspended for six months after a trial at Leicester County Court in January - if the buildings stayed.
The court heard that the owner of MB Estates has a £33million property empire with more than £1.7million cash in the bank.
In 2020 Dulay was given a 12-month jail sentence and ordered to pay more than £146,000 in fines and costs over fire safety failings so bad they risked lives in the same block of flats.
Millionaire landlord Munjit Dulay (pictured), 55, owns MB Estates and has a £30million property empire
Dulay was forced to tear down the two £1000-a-month illegal apartments in St Clements Court, Leicester (pictured and circled) after being threatened with four months in jail
Leicester City Council found out about the illegal apartments on Fosse Lane, New Parks and initially demanded their removal by March 6, 2018, gaining a court order from a district judge to do so May 2019.
But despite promising to demolish the two penthouses, the landlord continued to let them out, raking in another £450 a month for one and £600 for the other.
Jonathan Manning, barrister for the city council, told the court earlier this year: 'This has now been going on a very long time.
