A house of multiple occupancy which was being used for open drug dealing and had been the subject of endless complaints for more than a year about tenants anti social behaviour has finally been shut down.

In the last few weeks the council removed all the unauthorised occupants at 50 Melfort Road which has now been secured but not before multiple police units were called to deal with a fight between residents involving a metal pole during lockdown.

Eye witnesses reported seeing a short white man in his 50s putting up a fight before police were able to place him in the van and remove the metal object.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Police were called at 07.40am on Wednesday April 9, to a man with a metal pole behaving in a threatening manner in Melfort Road, Thornton Heath. Officers attended and arrested the man who was taken into police custody. There was no report of any injury.”

Residents had told The Chronicle that the “occupants” of this property had taken ASB to a whole new level – open drug dealing, smoking “crack-pipes” on the wall outside the property, fighting, intimidation, and theft.

Another said: “We see people looking like zombies coming in and out of the house constantly. We sat in our car watching these zombies and they are off their head and worst. We see dealers coming in and out with these BMW and Audi every other day.”

A local business told The Chronicle that the occupants had syringes and he had to stop them coming in to his premises. 

Various council services along with the landlord and the police had been working to resolve the issues at 50 Melfort which has been converted in to six flats and was licensed with the council’s landlord licensing scheme. The freehold of NO50 is owned by property developer Murtaza Ali Abbas.

• A recent FOI revealed that during the last year only three HMO or private rented property had licences revoked for being inadequate though many don’t even get a licence because they fail to meet the criteria.