Medina Park meeting in 2007. From left, Fred Sines, James Crickmore and Maurice Sines.
THE company that owns an Isle of Wight mobile home site has been ordered to pay more than £300,000 after offences committed against residents.
Leisure Parks Real Estate, which owns Medina Park in Whippingham, has been ordered to pay the cash after pleading guilty to 11 charges, including intimidation of residents and blocking of mobile home sales.
Eight victims have each be awarded £5,000 compensation, totalling £40,000.
Company directors Maurice Sines and James Crickmore pleaded guilty to individual offences against residents last May.
Their company, Leisure Parks Real Estate Ltd, also pleaded guilty to a string of charges, and was fined at a hearing at Portsmouth Crown Court yesterday (Wednesday).
Laura Gaudion, senior lawyer for the Isle of Wight Council, which brought the prosecution, said: "We had a number of complaints about the conduct of the company and we investigated, finding out they were putting pressure on homeowners to sell their homes back to them.
"They also contacted potential buyers of the mobile homes and said they were pieces of junk, that the bases were cracked and they weren't worth the money being paid."
The charges dated back to 2008 and included telling potential owners they would have to pay a site rent of £140 per month, that a home was 'worthless' and would have to be moved, which would cause it to fall to pieces, and threatening residents with the intent to cause them to leave their home.
The Middlesex-based company was ordered to pay £33,000 — £3,000 per offence — and the court issued a confiscation order for £275,000, from which the compensation will be paid.
A confiscation order is designed to strip defendants of any money made from criminal activity.
The company, which runs several home sites around the country, has six months to pay.