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Gran Pamela Chamberlain ordered to leave Leicester flat after drugs used and sold there

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A great-grandmother has been kicked out of her council flat after a court found drugs had been used and sold there.

Pamela Chamberlain, 73, and her grandson have been ordered out of their home in Stocking Farm, Leicester, for three months under a "crack house closure order".

Police yesterday convinced Leicester magistrates Chamberlain and 21-year-old Spencer Mottram had ignored warnings from officers and the city council about drug-related activity and other anti-social behaviour.

Chamberlain challenged the police version of events twice during the hearing, saying she would be happy to undergo a lie detector test on the Jeremy Kyle television show.

Following the hearing, she went to the city council to report herself and her grandson as temporarily homeless.

Her flat in Topcliffe Walk was sealed up with metal shutters.

The city council said it would honour its duty to provide some form of temporary accommodation.

Police said the behaviour of a group of men – said to be Mottram's friends – had left some people in the neighbourhood scared and intimidated.

Chamberlain, who was unable to secure legal aid and represented herself, told the court evidence presented by police – including heroin and crack cocaine worth £3,500 found during a raid last month – was "fabricated".

"I would never condone anything like this. I have never dealt in or allowed class A drugs on the premises," she said.

"All I have ever done on that estate is goodness. I could have brought 100 people here today to tell you that."

She called two neighbours as witnesses, who both said they had not seen drug misuse in her flat.

Asked by District Judge John Temperley about the men who visited her flat, she said: "They are nice boys, Your Worship. They're Spencer's friends.

"I told them 'If you ever bring any drugs into this house I'll call the Old Bill'. They are boisterous but they would never cause anyone any harm."

Police executed a drugs warrant at the flat in early January.

Officers found heroin and crack cocaine under the kitchen window in a communal yard. They arrested six men in the flat.

Lists of names and figures which police believe detailed drugs transactions were orders for take-away meals, Chamberlain claimed.

She said two sets of digital scales had only been used for weighing pieces of broken gold jewellery she sold for scrap.

Pc Simon Walters, who covers the Stocking Farm beat, said: "I am stopped regularly in the street or receive telephone calls from people telling us things are getting out of hand and they do not feel safe.

"One woman was in tears and was pleading for help, saying she could not take any more.

"This is a call I don't think I will ever forget because she referred to taking her own life."

Pc Walters said he had watched the flat one evening and saw a number of people approach it, meet a man outside and leave after five seconds.

The court heard that complaints first began to surface in mid-2009.

Mr Temperley granted the closure for three months, saying that "on the balance of probability" drug taking and misuse had taken place at the house and would continue if the order was not granted.

Following the hearing, assistant city mayor Sarah Russell said: "We welcome this action, which was necessary to tackle this problem and the impact it was having on neighbours who have a right to live in peace and safety."

Gran  Pamela Chamberlain  ordered to leave Leicester flat after drugs used and sold there


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