NEIGHBOURS called a landlady’s sentence “a farce” after she was given a conditional discharge for continuing to flout planning regulations.

One of Madelaina Eftekhari’s houses in Marston, Oxford, is illegally divided into two flats and remains in contravention of an enforcement notice served more than two years ago.

Watched by 10 neighbours at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday, the 44-year-old, who owns four properties in the city, was given a two-year conditional discharge and told to pay £2,000 costs.

Similar cases usually end at magistrates’ courts where the maximum fine is £20,000, but Eftekhari, who had represented herself and initially denied failing to comply with an enforcement notice, elected to be tried at the crown court where the maximum fine is unlimited.

Having appointed a barrister on Monday she reversed her plea on Thursday.

Tim Boswell, prosecuting for Oxford City Council, said the planning department was first alerted to the house in Hugh Allen Crescent in February 2008.

An enforcement officer visited the house and found it had been converted into two flats.

An enforcement notice “requiring Miss Eftekhari to convert the house back to a single dwelling” was served on May 8, 2008, with a time limit of March 10, 2009. But he said it was still being used as two flats and said the property was too small to be subdivided under guidelines.

“The enforcement notice remains in force and as far as the council is concerned the work still needs to be done,” Mr Boswell said.

Kevin Leigh, defending, said his client was “clueless as to planning”.

He said the house had already been converted into flats when Eftekhari, of Hobson Road, North Oxford, bought it in 2005 – a point strongly denied by the prosecution.

He said: “She effectively inherited someone else’s problem and not realised the seriousness of the situation.”

He added: “She, like many people, didn’t appreciate that planning has teeth, occasionally, and this is one of those occasions.”

He said Eftekhari, who applied for retrospective planning permission this year but failed to submit a number of details and the fee, still intends to have the conversion legally endorsed.

Outside court a group of neighbours said: “It’s a farce. We call that house the sty.”

Martin Kiefer, a Hugh Allen Crescent resident for 34 years, described the place as “an absolute tip”.

Neighbour Jane Upham, who said there were many responsible landlords in the area, said: “I approached her in a very pleasant way to talk about issues with rubbish and she told me to get a life and get off her property.”

A city council spokesman said it hoped she would now comply.