Thieving Leeds landlord who targeted students escapes jail

A LANDLORD who refused to hand back deposits to some of his student tenants has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Tariq Mahmood Zaman should have paid the money back when the tenancies were completed but refused to do so to at least 18 students who had agreements at properties belonging to his family, Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday.

Even when some of those involved got County Court judgments against him he simply ignored them.

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Zaman, 42 of Hollin Mount, Weetwood, Leeds was sentenced to 46 weeks in jail suspended for two years and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work after admitting 18 charges of theft.

He was also ordered to pay £3,500 costs.

Judge Penelope Belcher told him: “These were mean minded offences targeting young vulnerable students which could have had an impact on Leeds as a student city if it became known “people like you were not returning deposits”.

The judge said she had read references about Zaman including one from Leeds Councillor Mohammed Iqbal who clearly did not know him as well as he thought, since he said Zaman had not been involved in wrongdoing before, when he had previous convictions.

Alistair Campbell, prosecuting, said the complaints were came from before 2008 when the law changed to protect tenants.

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They involved nine properties in Headingley, Kirkstall and Burley, Leeds, and money was available to pay back those affected.

Rossano Scarmadella, for Zaman, said many students had received deposits back correctly and he accepted the few involved in the case should have done so and wanted to apologise to them.

Detective Constable Jo Hind, of the Leeds district proceeds of crime act team said afterwards she hoped the case “would serve as a reminder to any unscrupulous landlords who think they can exploit their tenants for financial gain”.

She added: “His practice of keeping deposits without any legal basis was on such a scale that the Leeds University Student Advice Centre took on extra staff to deal with the number of complaints they were receiving about him.”

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