Couple forced out council tenants

12 April 2012

A homeless couple who wormed their way into the homes of council tenants before forcing them out and moving in themselves have been ordered out of town.

Jonathan Dean, 25, and Rhonda Davis, 33, groomed and intimidated vulnerable council tenants before forcing them out of their properties and setting up home themselves.

The pair were given two-year anti-social behaviour orders by Central Devon Magistrates Court, to keep them out of the city of Exeter.

Devon and Cornwall Police said Dean and Davis "cuckooed" themselves into homes through mental and physical abuse and in one case a tenant was forced to sleep rough under bridges.

Exeter City Council's housing department and police applied for the Asbo after building evidence with a social housing charity.

Magistrates found on March 12 that both defendants had "harassed and intimidated vulnerable people in Exeter over a period of several years".

Steve Warran, head of housing services at Exeter City Council, said: "For too long our most vulnerable tenants have suffered from being harassed and intimidated by this pair. This case confirms we will take firm action against those who blight our communities with their anti social behaviour."

Sergeant Andy Nordqvist from Exeter's neighbourhood policing team said: "This is a fantastic result for vulnerable members of the community in Exeter.

"Both Dean and Davis were preying on vulnerable people subjecting them to intimidation and physical and mental abuse until they cuckooed them from their own homes.

"The Asbo is both proportionate and necessary to protect members of our community from future abuse."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in