A landlord has had his fine reduced from £7,500 to £2,500 in recognition of making an early guilty plea to charges arising from his failure to license a house in multiple occupation.

Gravesham Borough Council told Dartford Magistrates Court that Paramjit Singh Bansal, of Milton Road, Gravesend had jeopardised his tenants' safety at the four bedroomed property he rented to them in the same town.

He rented one of the bedrooms to a family of two adults and a child, and the others to three individual adults.

The Borough Council prosecuted Bansal under the 2004 Housing Act which gives local authorities greater powers to ensure landlords license their properties.

Bansal was charged with the offence after failing to acknowledge two letters sent by Gravesham Borough Council asking him to apply for a license. As well as the £2,500 fine, Bansal was also ordered to pay the council's full prosecution costs of £575.

• A mother of five who lived in a house rented from a private residential landlord has been jailed for 18 months after falsely claiming almost £62,000 in benefits.

The Yorkshire Evening Post reported how 26 year-old Agnes Colbert, gave false information to authorities, telling them she was a single mum for more than three years in order to claim housing benefit, income support and council tax benefit.

But Leeds Crown Court was old that it had been discovered Paul Butcher, the father of her children, was living with her at the property in Beeston, Leeds.

Colbert’s prosecution followed a joint investigation by Leeds City Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Colbert originally told local authorities that she and her five children lived alone in the rented accommodation, enabling her to claim housing and council tax benefit between March 2004 and September 2007 totalling £23,098.20. She also claimed Income Support of £38,771.32.

When interviewed by benefit staff Colbert maintained Paul Butcher did not live with them but when after requesting another interview she admitted she had lied and that her husband had been living in the property since the beginning of 2004.

Colbert pleaded guilty to charges of dishonestly failing to notify of a change in circumstances.

The Yorkshire Post quoted Judge Hoffman, who presided over the case, as saying: “Over a period of three years it is a huge amount and it has just disappeared. You have paid some of it back but it is peanuts compared to what you stole.”