After having convictions upheld relating to his giant Kangals, controversial Croydon figure now focuses on his planning appeals over the Leslie Arms pub in Addiscombe, a listed building on the ‘heritage at risk’ list
Almost a year since he was found guilty on six charges related to his three large Kangal dogs after they went on a rampage in Lloyd Park in 2023, millionaire Croydon developer Anwar Ansari has had his appeal against his conviction quashed and left court with his fines and costs almost doubled.
Dog conviction: Dr Anwar Ansari has lost his appeal against his six convictions
Dr Ansari’s giant Turkish guard dogs were seized by police after they got loose and killed a neighbour’s hens and attacked another dog in Lloyd Park in July 2023, as well as biting a runner.
In December last year, Ansari was found guilty of six offences under the Dangerous Dogs Act: of being “the owner of a dog dangerously out of control” and of “the owner of a dog dangerously out of control and causing injury” for each of the three dogs.
Such charges can carry a possible maximum three-year jail sentence.
Following Ansari’s failed appeal, the dogs have now been destroyed.
Ansari had faced fines and compensation charges amounting to £65,000 last December.
Now, with court fines, compensation, kennelling costs and vets’ fees, after the two-day appeal hearing held at the end of October, Ansari must pay more than £105,000.
The jogger who was attacked is to receive £10,000 compensation, while the family that watched as their flock of chickens were killed receive £3,000. Fees payable to the Metropolitan Police for looking after his dogs for almost 18 months amounted to £87,000.
Ansari is disqualified from keeping dogs for 10 years.
Ansari may now focus on other appeals: he has two cases with the planning inspectorate brought against Croydon Council, and effectively hundreds of Addiscombe residents, following the refusal to grant planning permission for his latest application for the Grade II-listed Leslie Arms.
Ansari also owns Coombe Farm, off Oaks Road in the Addington Hills, which he has converted into a mix of residential properties, offices, a mosque and Islamic centre.
Out of control: two of the three Kangal guard dogs when they went on a rampage through neighbours’ gardens and on into Lloyd Park in July 2023
It was from here that the dogs escaped from their compound on July 23, 2023, breaking into a neighbouring garden where they killed three hens and then headed off into Lloyd Park. There, they chased after a jogger and attacked another dog before they were caught by their owners, to be taken away by the police later.
The police had confiscated the dogs before, after a escape in March 2023. They were returned to Ansari on the basis that he would meet certain conditions to manage them under an “acceptable behaviour contract”.
Ansari had previously said that the Kangals were “working dogs rather than pets and require additional security and other welfare”. He said that the dogs were owned by his company, rather than himself.
After the incident in March 2023, he said that his company had “worked with the police to put in place all recommended enclosures and security to prevent the dogs causing any distress or damage to other residents or the public.
“The police were satisfied that the dogs were securely and responsibly being kept on the estate and did not pose any danger,” Ansari said then.
Ansari has been a controversial figure in Croydon political circles for more than a decade, having chaired his constituency Labour party, and funded and hosted an election victory party in 2014 after Labour won control of Croydon Town Hall.
He has also been a frequent and generous donor to local charities and religious groups. He is the president of the Croydon Federation of Mosques.
With assets said to be worth £80million, 67-year-old Ansari’s business interests include AA Homes and Housing, which has used permitted development rules to convert several office buildings in and around Croydon town centre into blocks of flats.
Ansari’s intentions for the Leslie Arms building appear to be focused on turning the pub’s former public area into private offices – something which has met with strong opposition from locals.
The Leslie Arms, on the junction of Cherry Orchard Road and Lower Addiscombe Road, closed as a pub more than 20 years ago – long before the developer acquired it – but Ansari has since faced calls from the Victorian Society to sell to another owner who might be more likely to finish the restoration work and bring the building back into public use.
The building has been placed on a “heritage at risk” list.
In the past few weeks, the ugly hoardings that had surrounded the building for several years were removed, revealing a significant local heritage asset which has undergone some significant external refurbishment. Access to the interior, which once had many original Victorian fittings, has not be so readily achieved.
Big reveal: the hoardings in front of the Grade II-listed Leslie Arms have finally been removed recently
“We can only think Ansari has finally done the ‘big reveal’ to help to impress the planning inspector,” according to one concerned local.
Croydon Council’s planning register identifies 24 planning applications which Ansari has made for the property since 2001, the most recent being this summer.
Ansari has also made four previous appeals to the planning inspectorate for 62 Lower Addiscombe Road, the Leslie Arms, all of them rejected.
His latest, lead appeal case, APP/L5240/W/25/3369537 is open with the planning inspector for public comments until this Friday, November 14.
“It’s important for residents to make the case that the ground floor and the basement area should be retained for a public use,” according to a local source.
Ansari’s, or AA Homes’s, latest planning application, submitted in June, was for “Change of use of ground floor and basement levels from public house… to flexible commercial/business/service space”.
Previously, Ansari had spoken of making the ground floor, the former pub bar area, available for community use, but it was then suggested that he wanted as much as £5,000 in monthly rent – a price no charity or community group could possibly afford.
Because the Leslie Arms is Grade II-listed (“It is crucial that pieces of our heritage such as this are protected,” the Victorian Society has said of the Leslie), each application for full planning permission has to be coupled with a separate application for listed building consent, and there is an overlap between these tandem applications, just as there are two linked cases going before the planning inspector now.
“The objections which saw the planning application rejected hold good now,” the local resident said. “The public spaces of that building ought to remain as public spaces.
“It’s important for as many people to lodge objections as possible before Friday’s deadline.”
Read more: The sorry 25-year chronology of a once great Addiscombe pub
Read more: Owner Ansari seeks to avoid Leslie Arms planning conditions
Read more: Property developer ordered to pay £65,000 over dog attacks
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Local business owners have been told by the builders that it’s going to reopen as a pub before Christmas.
Christmas 2035
The Leslie Arms was an eyesore. It looks so much better already.
A shame the Victorian Society wasn’t around to save the Blackhorse the other end of Addiscombe which was established in the 1500, now that was a travesty.