Homeowner who forgot his wallet returns to find Romanian family moving in in scene from ‘Dickensian times’

Homeowner who forgot his wallet returns to find Romanian family moving in in scene from ‘Dickensian times’

By Fay Schlesinger

Last updated at 1:32 AM on 23rd March 2010

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A householder returned home after forgetting his wallet – only to discover a Romanian family had moved in.
In what a judge described as a ‘Dickensian’ spectacle, an immigrant couple with a child in tow had broken in through a window and were making themselves at home.
Mihai and Laura Dediu told the stunned homeowner they were moving into his two-bedroom house because they had heard it was empty, a court was told.
The homeowner is thought to have left the house for no more than an hour.

Forcing their way in: Mihai and Laura Dediu say they moved into the home after being told it had been empty for some time
Target: The man, who lives alone in this two bedroom end-of-terrace house, was astounded to discover the Romanian family moving his belongings out
When he returned to collect the wallet he had forgotten, he found the couple inside and called the police.
The judge dealing with the case was incredulous at the details unfolded at Northampton Crown Court.
‘The owner comes back at 5pm and there’s an unknown car parked in his drive and the lights to the house are on,’ Judge Richard Bray told the court.
‘He goes in and finds these two defendants and, wait for it, a young child. We’re going back to Dickensian times, it appears.
‘When challenged, the defendants say they own the property and are just moving in and that the male defendant was going to alter the locks as part of that process.’
Sentencing the Dedius to 100 hours’ community service with a 12-month community order, he added: ‘This is a bizarre case. I must be the most experienced person in this building for burglary and in 26 years I cannot remember a case where burglars have taken a young child with them to carry out the burglary. I really can’t.’
Judge Richard Bray on the Romanian squatters: ‘We are going back to Dickensian times it appears’
Dediu, 30, and his 24-year-old wife admitted criminal damage to windows and locks while forcing their way in to the house in Northampton on December 7 last year.
The pair said a Romanian man they met in a shop told them they could squat in the house because it was empty, the court heard.
Michael Waterfield, prosecuting, said: ‘It may have been that’s what the defendants were told, but once they got into the house they would certainly have realised it was still occupied. They were taking clothes from the cupboards.’
A burglary charge, which carries a maximum jail sentence of 14 years, was dropped because the pair claimed they never intended to steal.
They moved to Britain three years ago and rent a two-bedroom flat with daughters Rebecca, eight, and Denisa, two, half a mile from the £150,000 home they broke into.
Last night Dediu, a builder earning £8,000 a year, said: ‘I met a man in the shop and he said this house was empty. I was not earning much money and we were paying £450 a month rent. I got into the house and started to tidy up. It did not look as if anybody was living there.
‘I want to work and pay my bills. I don’t want free money. I just wanted to save money and not pay rent.’
His wife said: ‘The house was a mess. We were tidying it up. We did not think anybody was living there.’
The householder declined to comment or confirm his name when he returned from work yesterday. The curtains remained drawn.
One neighbour said: ‘I suppose someone could believe the house was empty.’

COMMENTS

Just about sums up this country….gone down the pan
– Peter, Watford, 23/3/2010 7:50

You can’t make this stuff up, can you. Amazing … me thinks immediate deportation would have been a correct measure.
The crazy squatting laws are getting out of hand.
Squatting, in any form, should be made illegal. If the government wants houses to be occupied, then they should seize empty houses temporarily and assign people to live in them, no let squatters come in and invade properties.
I am owner of an old house myself that is empty for the moment. They building is planned to be torn down and a new house to be build, starting next month. However, the house was empty for over a year, while I was sorting out things with the architect and waiting for the building permit. What would have happenend if I would have lived in the UK and squatters would have moved in ???
– Evi, Antwerp, Belgium, 23/3/2010 7:49

How dare the neighbours make an assumption that the house is empty because the curtains are drawn!
– flynn slade, london, 23/3/2010 7:42

I don’t get this…even the judge said it was ‘the most bizarre BURGLARY case’ he had ever experienced…and yet the BURGLARY charge was dropped….absolute madness but then what can you expect in an English court!!!!!
– Sue, Bulgaria, 23/3/2010 7:41

Breaking and entering + criminal damage found guilty and not deported ..WELCOME TO BRITAIN TODAY
– jimmythefish, CZ, 23/3/2010 7:39

When you vote remember who has locked us into the EU without consulting us. Brown’s failure to honour (now there’s a word to play with) the labour promise of a referendum was the greatest betrayal this country has suffered. A close second has been the virtually unregulated immigration for party political advantage.
– Jim Smith, Polegate UK, 23/3/2010 7:32

We pay our taxes and can’t get anything back but hassle and more taxes. Yet these folk ‘pop’ into our country and get everything FREE because of the stupid laws under the HUMAN RIGHTS ACT…..only seems to work for immigrants though..fuming you bet!
– Carina, Shrewsbury, 23/3/2010 7:24

They were not deported because the government is stupid and refuses to pass legislation which would protect the taxpayers of the UK. You HAVE to ask yourselves will any other incoming government pass legislation which would throw out of this country ANY foreigners who abuse UK hospitality and which WILL reduce immigration.
– Norman (UK Taxpayer.), Athens, Greece., 23/3/2010 7:11

these people and those like them cannot be deported as they are part of the great eu what a honey pot this country is for all immigrants and what mugs we are for for suppyling the money to allow it.
– bejjie, derbyshire, 23/3/2010 7:06

How many times and ways must we say Close Our Borders! DEPORT. DEPORT. DEPORT.
– Sylver, Dunstable, 23/3/2010 7:03

This seems to be happening all the time. I was told of a British family who moved out their property while it was being renovated and when they came to move back in after spending a fortune on it there was a romanian family there that had ‘rights’ as they were paying someone ‘rent’ for the property. It is funny how they have ‘rights’ and can move in and change the locks, yet we have no ‘rights’ to reclaim our property and change the locks to keep them out again. This family were paying a mortgage to keep these scrounging tinkers in the lap of luxury and then had to pay rent to live elsewhere and the law could do nothing about it. This country is a joke and honest law abiding tax payers are the butt of that joke!
– Funkymonkie8, Scotland, 23/3/2010 6:59

We need a referendom on our membership of the EU
– Eddie Storey, Doncaster, England, 23/3/2010 6:58

Thank you Labour. The General Election cannot come quick enough. Let us hope the electorate give the three main parties a bloody nose for encouraging this crass stupidity
– dh, dorset, 22/3/2010 16:25

There’s an excellent place just down the road from them where they won’t need to change the locks: Yarls Wood Immigration Centre, where they can be held pending deportation and a life ban on reentering Britain.
– RM, Bent Kent, 22/3/2010 16:25

“…They were moving the owner’s belongings OUT the cupboards…” ??

So that didn’t ring ‘alarm bells’ to the Romanians indicating the house was still occupied? Of course it ‘ didn’t ‘.

I wonder how the police and the judge would have viewed this case if the owner had not returned when he did, but later, and by then the locks had been changed?

Would HE then, have been charged with breaking and entering if he attempted to get back in?

You can bet your sweet life he would.
– James, Devon, UK, 22/3/2010 16:24

typical of nulabour to allow it, fill the country up with scroungers to win more votes.
– lisa, england, 22/3/2010 16:22

Why have these not been summerly deported.This is not the first time Romanian families have behaved in this way. We the British tax payers seem to be at the butt end of some international joke where the citizens off third world countries see us as some sort of cash-cow which hands out money and housing to every dead-beat who arrives on our shore. Well enough is enough, if they haven’t the money stay for at least a year or preferably two they should be barred from entry at the port of entry and sent back to their home country immediately .NO EXCEPTIONS.
– Dermuid O’Shea, Hastings East Sussex, 22/3/2010 15:35

Britain is becoming the welfare country to the world. Why wasn’t these Romanians deported?
– Sue, England, UK, 22/3/2010 15:34

This is the third time I have read that illegal immigrants, typically a family, swiftly move into a home that has been vacated because the owners have gone to work or, to the shops!!

What is interesting is they ALL have the same story: a man in A SHOP informs them that they can JUST MOVE INTO someone’s home!!!

Unbelievable.
– marie, London, 22/3/2010 15:34

Judge Richard Bray is spot on when he says we are going back to Dickensian times if we are not already there that is. At least the judge had the sense to convict this pair for criminal damage, seeing as the burglary charge was dropped. Time and time again we see this happening foreign immigrants legal or illegal breaking into peoples homes and claiming squatters rights and the homeowners having to go to court @ their own expense to have them evicted, had the gentleman not come back early this probably would have been the outcome. Will the criminals now be deported after carrying out their sentence, I doubt it, this country under Nu Liebour is a haven for foreign criminals, Its about time this Dickensian law was changed for the good of the homeowner. I would never dream of living in acountry where I couldnt speak the language, and that should be the law for anyone wanting to live in the UK, If you want to live here then learn the language first or dont bother.
– Dave, Totnes, 22/3/2010 15:32

This wasn´t squatting. To squat you have to find the door unlocked and there should be no evidence of forced entry, if there is, it is breaking and entering which used to carry a custodial sentence. We should be like the Australians and Americans, commit a crime and and get deported, no ifs buts of wherebys.
– Mich, Murcia Spain, 22/3/2010 15:26

Are any of the big parties brave enough to say the EU isn’t working for the majority of the British people. The only people gaining out of this situation is big business with their cheap labour.

Can’t we get out and get associate status or failing that, join the North American Free Trade group.
– A Mar, Greenhithe Kent, 22/3/2010 15:26

Hope against hope that they will be found a place to live in ROMANIA.
I wont hold my breath as its probably against their human rights to be deported back home so their own countries government can both house and look after them.
– Don Butt, Nottingham, 22/3/2010 15:26

We have no security in the UK, if this man hadn’t come back he would have been locked out and homeless with months to wait for a court order to get the parasites out. This sort of thing MUST be stopped.
– JILL, ROCHESTER, UK, 22/3/2010 15:24

You live in an amazing country if people can just show up at your home and move in and your left on the street. In the states, if someone did this the home owner would drag them out into the street and apply and nice kicking for good measure. they would be lucky not to be shot (we are allowed to have guns, and this is propably why this does not happen here).
– American Hero, USA, 22/3/2010 15:24

Why were they not deported? DIDN’T EAT THE BISCUITS!!
– MM, Huntingdon, 22/3/2010 15:23

If they’d pinched the biscuits they would have been for it though…FULL FORCE OF THE LAW INC COURT CASE!!!
– Sarah, Durham, 22/3/2010 15:21

only a 12 month community order from breaking & entering & criminal damage?
Why not deport them? The UK has teh legal right to deport criminals so use those powers before we are over run with exported criminals!
– kev, Hampshire, 22/3/2010 14:56

Deportation ?
– rob, chesham, 22/3/2010 14:55

They should be deported. How much did it cost to prosecute them? Disgusting state of affairs in this country.
– damian, barrow in furness, 22/3/2010 14:55

A few hours community service as a punishment . Doing what may I ask if they dont even speak English ? The sooner Brown and his idiotit Party go the better
– sammy, UK, 22/3/2010 14:55

ERR, why weren’t they deported?
– Adrian S’wall, Northumberland, 22/3/2010 14:55
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What a joke British justice has become
– ronnie, what used to be England, 22/3/2010 14:54

british justice?.community order!what if he had not returned before the locks were changed etc,would have cost a fortune to get them out,human rights an all that.
this country is a shameful push over.
– tez, worcs, 22/3/2010 14:53

Another benefit of European Union membership. Let’s hope the rightful homeowner remembers to vote UKIP in the upcoming General Election – the LibLabCon won’t do anything to help him!
– Kris, EUSSR, 22/3/2010 14:53

Wonder where they are living now? Another squat? COUNCIL FLAT?
The story is so fanciful they should have been deported!
– DG, Cheltenham, 22/3/2010 14:53

It’s amazing how many poor Romanian’s get hoodwinked by these complete strangers who tell them they can go and live in a house and then disappear completely of the face of the earth.

There must be someone with a grudge against Romanian’s constantly going round telling them that because it seems to happen so often! How come it never happens to anybody who isn’t Romanian’s?
– Sally, Sheffield, 22/3/2010 14:53

This is way beyond a joke now.

Illegal shacks built without planning permission in Slough, squatter camps in peoples back gardens in Peterborough & now squatters simply breaking into occupied houses in Northampton!!!

Do any Labout politicians think that maybe….just maybe immigration is now officially out of hand.

Let’s see some common sense policies (not to mention some effective policing) to sort this mess out.
– Ben B., Hull, 22/3/2010 14:52

Wether the property is empty or not no one has the right to tell someone else they can move in. Community service, bunkum, send them back to their empty house.
– m baily, bournemouth, 22/3/2010 14:52

These people may not speak English but they do know right from wrong.
– TW, QB Canada, 22/3/2010 14:52

A bit misguided, you do not have to know all of the law, just the right bits about squatters law, and as for being told by a man in a shop, definatly not the first port of call.
There must be quite a few squatts in Romania or next door in europe, we are after a very small island and getting overcrowded by the minute, which is why I suppose the judge is referring to the return of Dickensian times.

I remember there being quite a few chateaus in france too big for one family, and falling to pieces, places like that have a bit of land to grow stuff too.
– emma, Bracknell Berkshire, 22/3/2010 14:52

Deport them immediately.
– Susannah, Berkshire, UK, 22/3/2010 14:52

Finding a family of Romanians who don’t speak English have taken over your home is surely what being British is all about nowadays! We should all just run up the white flag and admit that, as a once great nation, we have been utterly defeated.
– Simon West, Truro, 22/3/2010 14:50

The Romanians appear to have a home address already so why the break-in? Would they do such a thing in Romania? I rather doubt it – the bleeding-hearters aren’t in control there as they are here in the soft UK! Surely they’re now entitled to a trip back to Romania at UK expense, naturally,especially since they’ve no English!
– bob lowe, Billericay, UK, 22/3/2010 14:50

It looks as if our government has a missed a trick here and needs to pass a law quickly which will clearly state that if any indigenous British person leaves his/her house unattended, any immigrant regardless of origin or legal status can simply move into it and throw the owner and his belongings out into the street, by force if necessary, with no redress for the owner either.
– NoelBradford, Bradford, UK, 22/3/2010 14:49

The police need to find the man who told them they could live at that address and if money changed hands send him to prison.
No-one should be allowed into the country without a home and job to go to.
Not just arrive,squat and get yourself to the top of the council housing list.
– Sue, Yorks., 22/3/2010 14:49

Oh for heavens sake.What the hell is this country coming to.
Romanians who cant speak English given community orders and service who just thought it was a good idea to squat in a house they thought was empty.
I am struggling to pay my bills and all this government can do is help these people who are just joining the rest in the queue for the gravy train that is England.
What a God forsaken hole this country is.
Angry? You bet your life I am.
– Trev, Norfolk, 22/3/2010 14:49

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259798/Man-goes-work-comes-home-Romanian-family-moved-in.html#ixzz0izRUIfa5

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