West Hampstead squatters take over council flat

The evicted squatters who took over the West Hampstead family home of a doctor and his heavily pregnant wife moved straight into a council owned property less than half a mile away.

However when police arrived to enforce a 24 hour order to discharge the basment flat on Finchley Road they found the squatters had already left under the cover of darkness.

In dramatic scenes, overseen by Sergeant Timms of the West Hampstead Safer Neighbourhood Team, locksmiths were forced to kick down the door because the locks had already been changed.

The full story of Camden’s growing squatting dilemma will be in the Ham&High on Thursday.