Drug tenants evicted from their flats
Six tenants are being booted out of their flats on an estate after a joint sting by cops and their housing association landlord which recovered drugs worth up to £80,000.
The individuals are being evicted from the Stockwell Gardens and Studley Estates after a string of convictions which resulted from the operation.
Owners Hyde Group teamed up with the Met last summer to target people who had been making the estates “unsafe through serious criminal activities.”
Hyde is now serving notices to seek possession of flats in legal action against those individuals.
Detectives in Lambeth supported by officers in the Larkhall Safer Neighbourhood team led a police operation in the summer of 2017 to target drug supply and linked antisocial behaviour across the two estates.
PC Antony Knapman said: “The operation resulted in seven adult males and two juvenile males being convicted of multiple counts of supplying class-A drugs in the local area, the recovery of approximately £80,000 worth of drugs and custodial sentences ranging between 28 months to eight years in prison for all the adults involved.
“We have worked very closely with Hyde’s antisocial behaviour team throughout this operation to successfully obtain criminal behaviour orders, banning these individuals from the Stockwell area and Hyde is serving these notices to permanently deal with problematic tenants.
“The criminal group involved in the drug supply offences have been linked to serious offences involving knife and gun crime in London. We are providing a long-term solution and one that the community of Stockwell will hopefully see the benefits of, for many years to come.”
Hyde service manager Nic Haig said: “Families have the right to live in a safe environment away from the threat of gang-related crime. Hyde takes a zero tolerance approach to drugs and gang violence and will take all necessary steps to ensure this activity is removed from our estates.
“Our priority is the safety of our residents and their families. We are committed to working closely with our partners to address these issues and the work we have done and continue to do in the Stockwell area with the police is a shining example of this.”
If anyone has any information about criminal activity in the area, call the Larkhall Safer Neighbourhood Team on 0208 721 2625 or report anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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