A suspected looter in this week’s riots and his mother are being thrown out of their council home.
In the first case of its kind, Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, and his mother have been served with an eviction notice as council bosses seek to turf them out of their £225,000 taxpayer-subsidised flat.
Sartain-Clarke is charged with violent disorder and attempting to steal electronic goods from the Currys store at Clapham Junction, South London, on Monday night.
There is likely to be a flood of similar cases as council leaders across England respond to public demands that looters face the toughest penalties possible.
In another day of dramatic developments:
Sartain-Clarke was arrested after more than 100 looters went on the rampage on Monday night. For two hours, the mob ransacked mobile phone stores and sports shops such as Foot Locker and JD Sports.
He appeared before magistrates in Battersea on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to burglary and violent disorder. He and two co-defendants were remanded in custody.
Last night Ravi Govindia, the leader of Wandsworth Council, which issued the eviction notice, said he wanted the ‘strongest possible action’ taken against rioters and looters.
‘This council will do its utmost to ensure that those who are responsible pay a proper price,’ he said. ‘Ultimately this could lead to eviction from their homes.
‘Our officers will continue to work with the courts to establish the identities of other council tenants or members of their households as more cases are processed in the coming days and weeks.
‘Most residents on our housing estates are decent law-abiding citizens who will have been sickened at the scenes they witnessed on their TV screens this week.
‘As much as anything else we owe it to them to send out a strong signal that this kind of violence will not be tolerated.’
But Sartain-Clarke’s mother said her human rights had been ‘taken for granted’.
Spanish-born Maite de la Calva, 43, said: ‘I understand there are people who have got to face justice because all this has been madness and savagery.
‘But, I believe our human rights have been completely taken for granted. Daniel was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘As a mother, I’m not responsible for my son’s actions and they are penalising me for his actions.’
The part-time worker said the decision had left her ‘very upset’ and she did not know where she and daughter Revecca, eight, would go.
Sartain-Clarke is being held at Feltham Prison, and his mother said he was ‘terrified’ of other prisoners and gangsters.
She said: ‘The other prisoners have been threatening the rioters. Daniel doesn’t know how to fight or defend himself. It’s breaking my heart right now. I left him so afraid.’
She claimed her son helped out in the community and had no history of trouble.
‘He’s a staunch member of the church,’ she said. ‘My son didn’t have a hoodie or balaclava. His face was clean and open. He’s very passive. He’s even been diagnosed with depression because he’s too passive.’
She added that his girlfriend J-Niel Starkei, 18, who was also arrested, had a promising career ahead of her.
She said: ‘She’s a nice girl, not a troublemaker. She was going to start an apprenticeship this September in event management and work part-time at a casino at Westfield shopping centre.’
Read more:
UK riots: Daniel Sartain-Clarke's family first to be evicted by Wandsworth Council | Mail Online
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