These are the first pictures of inside the ‘illegal shanty town’ where 120 Eastern European migrants are living in a millionaire builder’s garden on one of Britain’s most exclusive roads.
Sleeping two to a room, on rickety beds and under thin blankets in a damp, airless room, occupants must share a squalid, tiny bathroom with cracked walls and a broken up kitchen, paying up to £400-a-month for the privilege, MailOnline can reveal.
The landowner Gerry Fitzgerald, a wealthy builder, has infuriated neighbours by constructing the ramshackle ‘slum’ next door to his £2million mock Tudor mansion in Mill Hill, the preferred address of business tycoons and football managers.
Squalid: These are the first pictures of inside a squalid illegal shanty town where 120 Eastern Europeans are living in a millionaire builder’s garden on one of Britain’s most exclusive roads.
Squeeze: Sleeping two to a room, on rickety beds and under thin blankets in a damp, airless room, occupants must share this kitchen (pictured) on the illegal site in Mill Hill, North London.
Shanty town: Millionaire builder Gerry Fitzgerald has allegedly set up five cabins on land next door to his £2million mansion in Mill Hill where one tenant says he pays £400 per month to share a room with his father and she use of dirty shared bathroom, pictured right.
Mr Fitzgerald, 60, is said to have constructed five multi-bed cabins on the plot in North London at an average value of £333 per month per tenant.
Earner: Mr Fitzgerald allegedly earns nearly half a million pounds each year from the migrants with some of them thought to be paying rent from their taxpayer-funded benefits but denied the allegations when questioned. Pictured: An aerial view of the site where 120 migrants live.
Millionaire’s row: Mr Fitzgerald’s detached £2million home with a Mercedes parked on the drive sits on one of London’s most exclusive roads where Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and Sports Direct chief Mike Ashley are neighbours
Mr Fitzgerald, 60, is said to have constructed five multi-bed cabins on the plot in North London at an average value of £333 per month per tenant.
He allegedly earns nearly half a million pounds each year from the migrants with some of them thought to be paying rent from their taxpayer-funded benefits but denied the allegations when questioned.
One shanty town resident, a hard-working Romanian who works 50 hours a week for the minimum wage, has told how he feels exploited by his landlord.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the migrant, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being evicted, said: ‘The owners are making money from our misery. They exploit us because they know we do not know the country and many of us do not know the language [English].
‘And if anyone makes a complaint they are told to leave immediately.
‘I have paid £400 to share a room. It is meant to be £200 but I did not understand what they were saying to me in English so I paid twice.
‘Everyone who is living in the camp is from Eastern Europe, mainly from Romania.
Used: One shanty town resident, a hard-working Eastern European migrant, who shares a bathroom (pictured) says he feels exploited by his landlord. ‘The owners are making money from our misery,’ the Romanian, who asked not to be identified for fear of being evicted.
An unnamed migrant, who spoke to MailOnline anonymously, said if he complains about the poor living conditions (pictured) he will be evicted. ‘If anyone makes a complaint they are told to leave immediately,’ he added.
A Romanian living there, who works 50 hours per week on minimum wage, told how the accommodation was organised by a friend. ‘The kitchen is good because it has a washing machine and a cooker but it is old and the furniture is broken,’ he said.
Damp: A migrant living there told MaiOnline: ‘We try to keep it as clean as we can but it is not easy. The cabin is very small and it is damp. There is heating but the blankets are thin and the bathroom is cracked and covered in mold.
‘But people are often told to leave with no notice. The landlord simply tells them they must go because someone else is taking their room.
‘They are told they have to leave whether they have anywhere to go or not.’
Barnet Council planning inspectors investigated after neighbours complained in January 2016, and Mr Fitzgerald was ordered to dismantle the ‘sub-standard accommodation’ for around 50 people.
Although it was built on the Green Belt without permission, Mr Fitzgerald began a High Court battle to challenge the order to tear down what has been described as the ‘Third World slum’ in his back garden.
Aerial images reveal the site contains a courtyard and a maze of rooms linked together by narrow corridors. Yesterday, the strip of land was still a hive of activity, with many vehicles coming and going, and children playing in the yard. It is unclear whether any of the cabins have been torn down.
A neighbour said: ‘You can’t go building mini villages for migrant workers. People need real homes, not sheds in gardens.’
Another added: ‘It’s like a shanty town. There must be 120 people there. If the wood caught fire it would all go up. They collect people, all Romanian, from the airport all the time. Men work in the day then sleep in beds used by the men working nightshifts.
‘I got told there’s at least 120 if not 150 in there and he makes £40,000 a month.’
It is alleged that married Mr Fitzgerald pays a Romanian couple to run the operation and that they collect new tenants from the airport ‘all the time’.
The tenant told MailOnline how the accommodation was organised by his countrymen before he arrived in England, saying: ‘I had nowhere to stay so a friend organised this accommodation for me.
‘We try to keep it as clean as we can but it is not easy. The cabin is very small and it is damp. There is heating but the blankets are thin and the bathroom is cracked and covered in mold.
‘The kitchen is good because it has a washing machine and a cooker but it is old and the furniture is broken.’
Shanty town residents must walk down a muddy lane to reach an isolate bus stop in order to get to work.
Neighbours include Sports Direct billionaire businessman Mike Ashley and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
Residents must walk down a muddy lane from the site to reach an isolate bus stop in order to get to work.
Meanwhile top of the range cars – a Mercedes Benz with a personalized number plate, a new Vauxhall 4×4 and a sporty Audi – are parked on the drive of their building tycoon Mr Fitzgerald’s mansion next door.
Neighbours include Sports Direct billionaire businessman Mike Ashley and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.