Landlady ordered to pay £200,000 compensation to woman she kept as a slave
A ‘manipulative’ property owner who kept a woman as a household slave for over a decade has been ordered to pay her nearly £200,000 in compensation.
Farzana Kausar, 59, was jailed last year after being convicted of keeping the woman against her will and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Kausar was found to have taken control of her victim’s finances, cutting her off from her family and forcing her to carry out chores like cooking and cleaning around properties in Sussex and London.
The victim often had to work 14-hour days as well as looking after Kausar’s children.
Kausar, who was locked up for six years and eight months last December, has now been ordered to pay her victim a total of £198,000 in compensation.
The sum includes state and housing benefits she took from the vulnerable 62-year-old woman, along with calculated unpaid wages during her time in servitude over 16 years.
Lewes Crown Court heard that wealthy Kausar has sufficient funds to pay the confiscation order in full.
Kausar, of Worthing, West Sussex, gradually trapped her victim through a sustained and calculated campaign of physical and psychological abuse.
Kausar would accompany her victim to all medical appointments, insisting that she was her carer and had her best wishes at heart.
She also took full control of her victim’s finances, opened bank accounts in her name – from which she withdrew money – and made benefit claims on her behalf that she also kept for herself.
The money was used to fund Kausar’s property empire.
Police were alerted in May 2019, when a nanny who had been employed to support Kausar’s family noticed one of the helpers was treated differently.
The nanny informed Adult Social Services who reported it to Sussex Police.
Detectives visited the address and found the victim was sleeping in the children’s bedroom and had no access to any of her own bank cards or ID documents.
Kausar was arrested on suspicion of modern slavery offences and assault before being released on bail while the enquiry continued.
Her victim was rehoused and was supported by social services.
But shortly after the woman disappeared, cutting off all ties to medics and care professionals.
She only resurfaced when the officer in charge of the case received a letter, seemingly from the victim, retracting her allegations about Kausar.
Police were able to trace the victim to an address in London in May 2020.
It emerged the letter had been written under duress with Kausar trying to cover up her crimes – and she was arrested again.
A jury took just three hours last October to find her guilty of the two charges.
Investigating officer detective constable Josh Bellamy said: ‘Farzana Kausar denied her victim the most basic of human needs during 16 years of control and manipulation.
‘She amassed her own personal wealth while siphoning off her victim’s benefits, using her bank accounts to pay for bills and forcing her to work in her home without payment.
‘Kausar is rightly behind bars and, while her vulnerable victim lost years of her freedom and must deal with the impact for the rest of her life, I hope these financial reparations go some way to compensating her for the treatment she has suffered.’
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