London - A great grandmother of 90 has been evicted from her home of almost 40 years because it was being used as a crack den.
Enid Malcolm was allegedly involved in the trade of drugs from her end terrace – and is said to have even once refunded a buyer who was unhappy with their purchase.
Council bosses applied for it to be boarded up after complaints from neighbours about violence and the nuisance from drug users.
Leicester magistrates granted a three-month closure order after hearing how addicts put cash through the letter box and drugs were thrown from an upstairs window.
The court also heard users had been injecting drugs in the street.
Mrs Malcolm denied being involved and sat in court shaking her head and tutting loudly as the evidence was presented. The court heard problems began at the house in Highfields, Leicester, after Mrs Malcolm’s husband Polones died in 2016.
Leicester council and police said the issue were caused by her son George Malcolm, 56, and her cousin, Clyde Wallace, who were living with her.
But the council said the pensioner was also aware of the dealing and was involved in it – accepting cash to buy drugs, ‘washing’ (making) crack, and acting as a lookout for a deal in the street near her home.
Vivienne Sedgley, for the council, said: ‘The activities were taking place every day at all hours of the day.’
She said residents were scared to speak out and without a closure order the behaviour would continue.
The court was told police had raided the home three times since 2016 and recovered drugs, knives and large sums of cash. There had also been a number of arrests and the conviction of Mrs Malcolm’s grandson Andre Alexis for possession with intent to supply.
Mrs Malcolm – who had lived at the property for 38 years – was present on two of the occasions, but was not arrested, the court heard. Miss Sedgley told magistrates that to grant the closure order they needed only to be convinced there was someone, not necessarily Mrs Malcolm, committing criminal activity at the house.
But she added: ‘I don’t accept she isn’t involved in it.’ Mrs Malcolm’s solicitor, Nigel Hallchurch, said there was ‘nothing to suggest she had anything to do with what went on’. In a police statement, she denied being involved.
Council housing officers attended court with keys to an alternative property for Mrs Malcolm but she said it was not even ‘fit for a dog’.
After the hearing, Mrs Malcolm said: ‘I’m too old for this.
‘They’ve said I’m a drug dealer – that I wash crack. I don’t even know what that means. Someone’s trying to stitch me up.’