Rogue Developer Flouts Planning Laws To Cash In

A millionaire property developer, who illegally ripped up the sprung wooden floor of a grade two listed cinema, making a £625,000 profit when it was sold for residential conversion, has been fined.

Franco Lumba, 45, of St. Margaret's Road, Twickenham is laughing all the way to the bank after deliberately ignoring repeated warnings from Kingston-upon-Thames council to cease work on the landmark town centre building.

The original Regal Cinema building became a Gala bingo hall and removal of the sloped amphitheatre floor made the property far more attractive for lucrative residential development.

Lumba pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to executing works on a listed building, without permission, between August 24 and October 26, 2010 and was fined £45,000 with £29,278 costs.

Prosecutor Mr. Richard Heller told the court the defendant's company - FL Trading - purchased the building for £1.975m on June 11 2010 and on July 14 the council received a formal complaint concerning works at the site.

A planning officer visited and the builders refused to identify the owner and refused entry to the building on subsequent occasions - even working on weekends in the knowledge council officers were not available to attend. 

"This case is about the removal of the sloped floor from the back of the auditorium to the front of the stage," explained. "The auditorium floor had been excavated and reduced to rubble."

Lumba applied for a nightclub licence for the building, but was refused.

He recently sold it for £2.6m to developers who wish to convert it into flats.

The court heard Lumba has a £5.7m property portfolio, which includes properties in Knightsbridge and Wentworth, has companies registered in Spain and the Cayman Islands and a motor yacht worth over £1m.

Despite being guilty of ignoring planning laws Lumba tried to get half of his legal bills back because charges against FL Trading were dropped.

"You are asking for costs when I find the company was complicit because it was run by the defendant," said the Recorder of Croydon Warwick McKinnon. "It is almost impertinent for the company to be awarded costs. I reject that.

"He has taken the law into his own hands brazenly and defiantly. The defendant knew it was a listed building.

"There has been a significant profit made and he flagrantly went ahead, disregarding the warnings. This is a bed case of its type."

Lumba will have to pay the fine and costs in full within eight months or go to prison for eighteen months.