Letting agent who rented out 'beds in sheds' likened to a Rio slum could be jailed

A letting agent who rented out squalid 'beds in sheds' likened to a "Rio slum" for £2,850 a month has been ordered to hand over £235,000 - or face time in jail.

Zoofshan Malik used her firm to rent out the four filthy tiny bedsits in an illegal extension built in the back garden of a property she owned in east London.

The director of Emerson Knight Estates Ltd made around £108,000 over nearly four years charging each tenant £712.50 a month until council officials received a tip off.

They discovered the four bedsits crammed into the 37ft extension in Barking.

Malik, 47, now has to pay out over £235,000 to the council after she pleaded guilty to renting out the bedsits at Snaresbrook Crown Court on April 12.

Recorder Milliken Smith ordered Malik to pay the £222,000 Confiscation Order in three months or face two years in prison.

He also fined her £2,000 for the illegal extension with three months to pay or face 30 days in jail and ordered her to pay £11,649 in costs.

Councillor Laila Butt, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Enforcement, said: