C O N T E X T 1 2 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 5 Case report: London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Record fine for house demolition It is traditional in the conservation world that disasters happen on Fridays or over the weekend. True to form, I received a call from a concerned resident, on a rather quiet Friday morning, about demolition works that were taking place at 6 Trafalgar Road, Twickenham. An enforcement officer promptly went on site. The photographs she bought back made my jaw drop; the entire building had been demolished. 6 Trafalgar Road was a beautiful building. It formed one half of a pair of semi-detached villas which had shared an elegant, understated elevation. Although the precise date of the house is unclear, it was certainly extant by 1841, and was one of 12 pairs of villas of a consistent scale and style that formed a distinctive group. The significance of the estate was recognised early on by the London Borough of Richmond, being designated as a conservation area in 1969. In 1982 an Article 4(1) Direction was applied to the group and in 1983 they were locally listed. The only exceptions were 2 and 4 Trafalgar Road, which had been listed at Grade II in 1952. In response to the demolition works, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames interviewed the owner of the property, Mr Johnson, under caution. At that interview it became clear that 6 Trafalgar Road was Johnson’s family home, that he had paid over £1 million for it in 2007, and that he had ordered its complete demolition. He had never applied for the necessary conservation area consent. The council issued a summons commencing the prosecution of Johnson for the offence of demolishing the building without conservation area consent. At the first hearing in the magistrates’ court, Johnson pleaded guilty and asked to be sentenced there and then. However, since the maximum fine available in the magistrates’ court is only £20,000 (and/or six months imprisonment), our counsel, Gary Grant, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the council, argued that the offence was too serious to justify the limited penalties available. The magistrates agreed and committed Johnson for sentence at Kingston Crown Court where the potential penalty is an unlimited fine and/or two years imprisonment. A prison sentence was never considered appropriate in this case. At Kingston Crown Court the case was heard by His Honour Judge Dodgson. The factors he assessed in determining the proper level of sentence were the degree of financial gain, the defendant’s state of mind, or culpability, and the degree of damage that had been done. Since owning the building, Johnson had obtained permission for a twostorey side extension and basement. His intention, following demolition, was to rebuild the house in replica along with the approved extension and basement. Expert witnesses on VAT and building costs for both the defence and prosecution agreed that by knocking down the building and then rebuilding it in replica, complete with the basement and side extensions, 6 Trafalgar Road formed half of a pair of semi-detached villas, one of 12 pairs. The judge described the effect on the closest neighbour, who was in her house at the time of the demolition, as ‘devastating’.
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