John and Serena Connors and their five children share five bedrooms and three bathrooms in the north London property, which is paid for by housing benefit.
Their landlady, businesswoman Sapna Bukhari, is trying to evict them because she claims they have caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage and neighbours have complained about the noise they make and the mounds of rubbish, which includes old food, clothes and cat excrement, left in their back garden.
But Mrs Connors, who is originally from County Wexford in Ireland, said her family were the victims and she was determined to stay. She threatened to take legal action over “racism against travellers” if they were pushed out.
“The landlady doesn't like travellers,” she said. “It's racism, I'm going to get her done for harassment.”
The Metropolitan Police has released a leaflet to residents claiming an unnamed family of travellers are suspects in a series of burglaries.
Mrs Connors said she was making a complaint to the police about the accusation, which she believes is aimed at her family.
“My kids are cheeky but they aren't thieves,” she added. Although it does not name the Connors, the leaflet claims the perpetrators are “from the travelling community”, and describes two teenage girls with Irish accents.
Headed “Warning”, the leaflet was issued by the Totteridge Safer Neighbourhood Team to all houses in the street except the Connors, and claims thieves in the area have approached homeowners asking to use the lavatory and telling general stories of hard luck.
It says: “All will end in them trying to enter your house and steal anything they can get their hands on.”
Today Mrs Bukhari said she hoped the police would support her bid to have the family evicted. She said she and her husband Zulfi, both 38, were approached by Barnet council in February about the Connors.
Council officials told her they were under an obligation to find them a large enough house and said the family would be benefiting from the Local Housing Allowance.
With the rental market falling, Mrs Bukhari agreed to let the house to the Connors for £2,400 a month after being assured they were “good tenants”.
But she said: “Within a few weeks of them moving in, a radiator was pulled off the wall and the water from it made the ceiling collapse. They threatened me, my builder and my plumber.
“They've twice blocked the drains so sewage has flowed on to the pavement, have thrown food, clothes, cat excrement and all manner of rubbish into the gardens, and shout and scream vile obscenities.
“They won't even let the builders come in to carry out repairs. I'm worried the damage will cost tens of thousands.”
And so the "yooman rights" gravy train trundles on...
And the legal profession did flourish and multiply
And all that fed them did wither on the vine.
UK Exodus 1
Here endeth the lesson,
Mr Jackson.
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