Low Fine for Company on Plea of Guilty to a Breach of a Planning Enforcement Notice

February 24, 2017

Stuart Jessop represented a property company at its sentence hearing for an offence under section 179(1) (2) Town and Country Planning Act 1990, namely that it, as the owner of the property, failed to comply with an Enforcement Notice. The company avoided a Confiscation Order under the Proceeds of Crime Act by arguing that it did not receive any of the financial benefit as the rent was paid to the leaseholder and not to them as the freeholder. In sentencing them to a fine of £850, for a breach over a long period, the Learned Judge took into account the company’s plea of guilty, their lack of previous convictions and lack of financial benefit.