Garage used as illegal classroom court told

A tutor spent up to £35,000 transforming the garage of his Walsall home into a mini-school, which he ran without permission, a court was told.

Ajay Kapur held 15 two-hour tuition classes each week from the home he shared with his wife Savita in Broadway North.

The couple have now been told to pay more than £1,400 between them after ignoring enforcement action issued by Walsall Council last August that required the pair to remove desks, chairs and whiteboards by December 2011.

Mr Dominic Patouchas, prosecuting, told Walsall Magistrates Court yesterday, that the lessons caused parking and traffic issues.

The court heard that 48-year-old Ajay Kapur, who set up Top Marks tuition service, would run some classes until 9pm.

Mr Patouchas said the authority wrote to the Kapurs advising them that planning permission was needed in order to carry on, and subsequently an application was lodged but then withdrawn.

"In August the council issued an enforcement notice," he added.

"No appeal was made against the notice. It should have been complied with by December."

Both defendants admitted breaching the enforcement notice during the hearing yesterday.

Mr Chris Loach, mitigating, said Ajay Kapur, who previously worked as a warehouse assistant, had been left with severe mobility problems after a road traffic accident in 1991 and was unable to return to his job.

He said he started tutoring from a room in his home, but noise coming from a neighbouring property led him to convert the garage.

Mr Loach said he taught a maximum of six pupils at one time and would encourage parents not to use their cars to drop off and pick up their children.

Ajay Kapur, who said he spent £30,000 to £35,000 converting his garage into a classroom, was fined £1,000 and told to pay a £15 victim surcharge.

His wife, aged 47, was given a conditional discharge and both were ordered to pay £213.15 costs.