A judge at Wandsworth County Court yesterday ordered the council and its tenant to get in an Uber and sort out the keys to his flat. Right now. Before the office closed.
“Get in an Uber, how soon can you be there? Five minutes. Right. Why can’t you both go there, give him a key and that’s the end of it?” the judge said. “Go there now, before the office closes.”
It took a judge approximately five minutes to resolve an issue that Wandsworth Council and its tenant Kevin Stratford had apparently failed to settle in the six weeks since a court granted an injunction against him for anti-social behaviour that included smashing neighbours’ windows, threatening children, throwing knives into gardens and loud fighting into the early hours.
Stratford, who appeared without legal representation, told the court he had no front door key to his own flat and had not been able to get in. “I have no choice but to climb over the balcony,” he said. His said his care coordinator and mental health team had both written to the council saying he could not access the property. He arrived carrying a handwritten statement and a letter from a mental health crisis team.
The council’s barrister, Miss Blair, disputed his account. “We have on numerous occasions tried to reach Mr Stratford with replacement keys,” she said. “I believe we have delivered replacement keys on a couple of occasions. And we’ve also told him when those failed that he can attend our offices in order to collect keys.”
The judge was also unimpressed with the council’s preparation. It had arrived with a second witness statement dated 3 February, that had not been served on Stratford and was not on the court file. The judge initially declined to read it in case contempt proceedings were later brought. The council was also seeking a dog exclusion clause despite producing no evidence of a dog. “You’ve had six weeks since the grant of the injunction to work out whether there’s a dog or not,” the judge said. “You are asking me to include a provision for exclusion of dogs even though there’s no up to date evidence there’s any dog there.”
Stratford’s preparation was not much better. When the judge asked if he had legal representation, Stratford said he had an appointment on Monday with a domestic violence organisation. The judge pressed him. Stratford acknowledged he was “looking to get one.”
When Stratford appeared to be addressing the allegations against him from his handwritten statement, the judge stopped him. “Mr Stratford, I hadn’t realised we were going to deal with the allegations against you. You have a right against self-incrimination, you have a right to remain silent. Breaching a court order is an extremely serious matter, even if you admit it. So if there’s any part of your statement which deals with that, you should consider very carefully whether you want to say about it.”
Putney.news has been following this case since December, when we documented a year of complaints from neighbours about behaviour at the Fownes Street address. The without-notice injunction was granted in December with Stratford not present. Friday’s return date should have happened in early January. It did not. In January, Wandsworth said it intended to pursue possession proceedings. Friday’s hearing did not pursue possession.
Stratford also told the court that Lee Preston, named in previous coverage, held working keys to the flat and was due to be released from prison on Tuesday 24 February. He claimed to have applied for a non-molestation order against Preston that day.
The injunction was continued for 28 days with a dog clause added. Stratford has 28 days to file a written statement in response to the allegations. A directions hearing will follow.
As of Friday evening, it was not known whether the key handover had taken place.
