A rogue landlord has been stripped of his OBE for bringing the honours system into disrepute after two decades of managing illegally converted houses.

Nirpaul Riat was handed a whopping £300,000 fine in 2023 - one of the largest ever fines given out in Hounslow - for managing 22 properties where vulnerable tenants lived in appalling conditions.

He had also illegally converted a property into eight flats and rented an outbuilding in Osterley where the squalid conditions included damp, cramped rooms with limited natural light, a lack of hot water and heating that only working irregularly.

Converting

Riat had previously been fined £20,000 in 2009 for illegally converting a property in Hanworth into flats, refusing to reinstate it as a single house or to stop using a static caravan as a separate home to rent out.

Hounslow Council said the veteran landlord treated his tenants as nothing more than a commodity, exploiting residents in need of housing for his own financial gain.

Tom Bruce, the council’s deputy leader told The Standard that the decision to remove Riat’s honour sent a “clear message” that “profiting from unacceptable living conditions” would “not be tolerated”.

Riat was made an OBE in 2011 for services to charity and to the Punjabi people after he raised nearly £50,000 for air ambulance services, Thames Valley Crime Stoppers and Great Ormond Street Hospital. However, the Cabinet Office confirmed that Riat has now been stripped of his honour after he had “brought the honours system into disrepute”.

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