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The Smoking Commode
Special Investigation: How did dying woman's flat contents end up for sale?
When the CNJ first probed the ‘skipping’ of a dying woman’s possessions from her council flat, we were told any items of value would have been put to one side. So how did this commode end up in an antique shop?
THE Town Hall has stepped up a probe into possible abuse and theft in the care of the elderly after the New Journal produced evidence that antiques cleared from a dying 92-year-old’s flat were later sold.
A Victorian step commode last seen being cleared into a Camden Council van from the Gospel Oak flat of Dorothy Robinson was on sale in an antique shop in York Way three weeks later.
Under Town Hall policy the council homes of the dead, seriously ill or missing can be reclaimed and cleared for a new tenant, but only after a careful inventory has been taken.
The council has admitted no inventory was taken in Mrs Robinson’s flat, in Lissenden Gardens, and claimed her possessions had no value.
Neighbours, however, said it was full of antiques and valuable books, which were thrown into a skip while she was still in a nursing home. Mrs Robinson died ten days later.
Three weeks after the contents were supposed to have been taken to “waste disposal” however, a neighbour said he spotted an antique in an antique shop. He bought the item back for £65.
When she fell ill, Camden Council had surrendered Mrs Robinson’s 33-year tenancy on her behalf after winning powers to manage her financial affairs and declaring that she had no next of kin – allowing the flat to be cleared for a new tenant to move in.
The process took 13 months but failed to discover Mrs Robinson’s grandson Jonathan Pendrill, who met her shortly before she died after a separation of three decades, or her niece, Pauline Brown, who lives in Camden Town.
Mrs Robinson is understood to have at least seven other living relatives including nieces, nephews, and grand-nieces, several more of whom live in Camden.
Since January 4, the council has insisted that, despite the absence of an inventory as demanded by council procedures and the testimony of neighbours, the goods in Mrs Robinson’s flat ‘have no value’ and were disposed of ‘in a skip’.
On Tuesday, the New Journal informed the council of photographs and documents tracing the distinctive commode from Mrs Robinson’s flat to the antique shop.
It belonged to Hillary Katz, who was one of two neighbours storing items in Mrs Robinson’s flat over Christmas.
He protested to the clearance team at the time that the commode was his, and when they refused to return it, wrote to Camden Council describing the piece. Although the council returned two other items belonging to him, acknowledging his claim to have stored them in the flat, his last sight of the commode was in the council’s removal van on the third day of the clearance.
Last week, he paid £65 at Paul’s Emporium in York Way to re-purchase the commode and another item also removed from Mrs Robinson’s flat.
Neighbours have confirmed that the commode – which is of a distinctive design, with a step, a ceramic bowl and a unique cloth finish – was the one Mr Katz stored at Mrs Robinson’s flat.
He said: “There is no doubt at all that this is mine. I saw it in Dorothy’s flat on the third (and last) day of the clearance, when all of the good furniture had been moved into one room. I told them it was mine but they said it had to go to a skip.
“To get it back is fantastic, but the point is that all Dorothy’s neighbours were disgusted at the way that her things, her whole life, was taken out into the street – and the arrogance of the council when we tried to talk to them about it.”
The owner of Paul’s Emporium said on Tuesday that he recalled selling the commode, which he said he had bought at a Sunday car boot sale in Nine Elms, south London.
Under council clearance procedures goods from flats cleared by the Building and Maintenance Division are taken to their depot on Holmes Road, Kentish Town, before being removed to Donoghues commercial waste disposal site in Cricklewood. No-one at Donoghues returned calls yesterday.
Although a spokesman said three weeks ago that “officers never act alone in house clearances and in the very rare cases officers would uncover valuable items these will be reported and dealt with appropriately”, last night, a spokesman confirmed that the council had no record of any valuable items of jewellery, cash or furniture being reported in this way for the 1,200 properties cleared a year – although goldfish, hearing aids and dogs had been identified during clearances.
The Town Hall heads of Social Care and Housing have declined to meet with the New Journal despite repeated requests since January.
However, Councillor Martin Davies, the elected social services chief, said: “It is the easiest thing to steal from an elderly’s possessions, and the easiest thing is cash. But in some circumstances the things in a dead person’s house are effectively cash.”
A council statement said: “These are very serious allegations. As in any case where concerns about the actions of staff are raised, we will fully investigate them. If any wrong-doing is uncovered we will take action against the individuals responsible and do whatever we can to stop it happening again.
“We would like to see any information that anybody has that concerns this case. We also want to hear any concerns that neighbours and friends of Mrs Robinson or other vulnerable residents in a similar situation.”
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