Landlord handed suspended sentences for harassment and illegal eviction

A pair of private landlords from Sheffield who harassed and illegal evicted their tenant have been handed suspended prison sentences.

Mark Cashin was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, while Rory Taylor was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, for several property offences, including the harassment and subsequent illegal eviction of a man living in a property they own in Woodstock Road, Netheredge, in January 2016.

Robert Sandford, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court that Cashin started to harass the tenant when he told him he may have to pay his rent on a different date due to starting a new job.

Cashin of Haddon Road, Bakewell, then threatened the tenants with eviction through a series of text messages.

After calling the tenant to tell him he was unhappy that he had “caused him trouble” with the local authority, Cashin visited the man and verbally abused him before telling him was going to send a man round to “deal with him”.

The tenant later arrived home to find all of his possessions bagged up in the hallway, and he was presented with what was described in the court as a ‘Mickey Mouse’ eviction agreement drafted by Cashin.

The tenant responded by calling the police and Sheffield City Council to the property.

The court heard how this was not the first time Cashin had harassed a tenant.

The landlord admitted to harassing a female tenant living in Sheldon Road, Netheredge, in September 2015 after she asked him to replace a broken washing machine at the house in multiple occupation (HMO) she was living in.

The court was told how Cashin, who has previously been convicted of 54 property offences, threatened to evict the woman and ‘throw her clothes out on the street’ when she said she would deduct the cost of using a launderette from her rent payments.

Taylor was found guilty of harassment and illegal eviction of a private rented tenant in February following a trial, while Cashin admitted to two counts of harassing a tenant/occupier last year.

During sentencing, Recorder Martin Simpson, told Cashin: “You, and landlords like you, think they're above the law but they're not, and should take advice before trying to use the law against vulnerable tenants, and respect that they are too protected by the law.”

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