05:05PM, Friday 03 October 2025
Reading Crown Court
Two Slough homeowners have been told to pay nearly £40,000 for failing to comply with a planning enforcement notice issued for using their outbuilding as residential accommodation.
Venu Andem and Ashvitha Andem were issued a planning enforcement notice for their property on Windsor Road on April 22 2022.
This was following a report that an outbuilding was being used as an independent unit of residential accommodation.
Inspections of the property revealed a kitchenette, shower room, bed, and other residential facilities, confirming the illegal use of a self-contained residential unit.
The unauthorised use had to stop, and a planning enforcement notice came into effect on May 23 2023.
However, the owners had still not stopped the illegal use of the outbuilding by January 2024.
The council’s planning enforcement team then launched a prosecution case against the owners for non-compliance.
The defendants entered guilty pleas at Reading Magistrates’ Court in February 2025, and the council applied for confiscation proceedings to recoup any unlawfully gained benefit from the illegal use of the property.
A sentencing hearing was conducted at Reading Crown Court on September 26, where each defendant was fined £5,000 and £3,900 in costs, along with a £21,563.14 Confiscation Order imposed with a seven-month imprisonment sentence in default of payment.
The total for both defendants was £39,363.14.
Councillor Paul Kelly, lead member for planning, parking, highways and transport, said: “We are pleased to see the courts take this offence seriously. A planning enforcement notice is not a suggestion; it is a legal requirement to follow it.
“We hope this prosecution makes other people think twice, as there could be severe consequences for ignoring planning enforcement notices, such as the large financial penalty in this case.”
In January 2025, the notice had been complied with, and the illegal use of the outbuilding had ceased. Both the kitchen and bathroom had been removed in their entirety, as required by the Planning Enforcement Notice.
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