An interesting welcome home gift
A Vicar, who left his house for 30 years, returned home to find a complete stranger living in it.
Revd Mike Hall bought the house in Luton, Bedfordshire, back in 1990, but, moved away to north Wales for work leaving the property unoccupied.
However, after neighbours saw that someone was in his house and all the lights were on, they alerted the Reverend who immediately drove back to Luton in July 2021.
Upon arriving, Revd Hall tried to open the door, but couldn’t enter.
“I tried my key in the front door, it didn’t work and a man opened the front door to me – and the shock of seeing the house completely stripped of furniture, everything was out of the property,” he said speaking to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours.
It turned out that the clergyman had been the victim of identity theft with a fake driving license being used to impersonate Revd Hall and set up a bank account to receive the proceeds as the house was sold £131,000.
The radio show also managed to get hold of phone recordings of someone impersonating the reverend as they told solicitors to sell the house.
After two years in court, the case was finally resolved in November 2023 with Revd Hall’s name being returned to the title of the house by the Land Registry while the BBC Radio 4 show understands that the person who bought the house was compensated by the Land Registry.
Following the case the Reverend proclaimed “justice has been done”.
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He said: “Having gone through a battle in the courts to tell all and sundry that it is my house, that it was sold fraudulently, has now borne fruit.”
However, the story doesn’t end there, as ,only days after the court case hearing, the Reverend returned to the home after a two month absence to find the back window smashed and the front door lock “punched out”.
The Reverend believes squatters have taken up residence in the house as the lights were switched on while the boiler had been in use with an estimated £60,000 of damage done to the house.
Bedfordshire Police has recommended he returns to the courts for an Interim Possession Order in order for police to arrest the two people thought to be squatters in the property.
After BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme returned to the story, Bedfordshire Police told them the people inside the house claim to have a rental agreement.
Police say five people have been arrested in connection with the whole saga, while the investigation continues.
