Rich builder keeps 120 migrants in illegal back garden ‘shanty town’
Back garden sheds housing Eastern Europeans compared to third world slum as court orders it to be torn down
A MILLIONAIRE builder is putting up 120 migrants in an illegal “shanty town” in his backyard.
Gerry Fitzgerald, 60, is said to rake in a fortune in rent from the Eastern Europeans, some claiming benefits.
He lives in a £2million, five-bed mansion next door in North London.
A source said: “It’s incredible, like a Third World slum.”
The migrants have been living in shacks and sheds behind Gerry Fitzgerald’s £2million mansion for up to four years.
Some get taxpayer-funded housing benefit to pay his rent, earning him up to £40,000 a month, it is claimed.
Documents show five multi-bed cabins were illegally built on the plot in North London.
A five-bed shed, six-bed building and eight-bed home have also gone up since 2013.
One visitor said: “It’s like a shanty town. There must be 120 people there. If the wood caught fire it would all go up.”
They said Mr Fitzgerald, 60, pays a Romanian couple to run the operation, adding: “They collect people, all Romanian, from the airport all the time.
“Men work in the day then sleep in beds used by the men working nightshifts.
“I got told there’s at least 120 if not 150 in there and he (Gerry) makes £40,000 a month.”
It would mean each tenant pays £333 a month in rent.
The migrant village is on an exclusive road in green belt near the homes of Sports Direct billionaire Mike Ashley and Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.
Aerial shots reveal sheds, a courtyard, decking, a canopy and rooms linked by tight corridors.
In six hours The Sun counted 20 vehicles coming and going.
A girl headed to school and at least ten residents left on foot. A bonfire burned all day.
A council inspection in January 2016 recorded around 50 people inside. Sources claim the number has doubled in 18 months.
In May 2016 the council told Mr Fitzgerald to tear down the three buildings and five cabins.
He lost his High Court appeal this May and they must go by the end of the year.
An enforcement notice said the complex was “sub-standard accommodation”.
Housing benefit claims were made there in 2012 and 2016.
Mr Fitzgerald denied earning £40,000, saying: “If there were 120 there I’d be living in the Bahamas.
Everyone staying there is legal under the annual short-term tenancy act. They pay council tax and have National Insurance.”
A neighbour said: “You can’t go building mini villages for migrant workers. People need real homes not sheds in gardens.”
Barnet Council leader Richard Cornelius said: “We took legal action to resolve the situation.”
