North Yorkshire Council has approved plans to convert a former guest house in Harrogate into seven flats.
Leeds-based Abbeycrown Ltd tabled proposals to the council to change the property at 6 Dragon Parade, which is known as Dragon House, into co-living accommodation.
In documents submitted the council, the developer said the guest house had seen a downturn in trade during the covid pandemic.
It added that, as a result, the property was “unviable as a guest house”.
The proposal would see the building converted into a seven-bedroom house of multiple occupation.
The developer said in its planning statement:
“The applicant is looking to address the need of high quality co-living facilities in the area to create rooms for professionals and public sector workers.”
It added that tenants would be “fully vetted and verified people” and would not have a detrimental impact on the surrounding area and neighbours.
A house in multiple occupation is a property rented out by at least three people who are not from the same household, but share facilities such as a kitchen and bathroom.
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Man ordered to pay £1 for role in £500,000 Harrogate cannabis racket
An Albanian drug conspirator involved in a half-a-million-pound cannabis racket in Harrogate has been made to pay back just £1 to the public purse and is apparently “nowhere to be found”.
Andi Kokaj, 23, was part of a London-based gang which conspired with former Harrogate guest-house owner Yoko Banks to set up three lucrative cannabis factories in affluent streets.
He was jailed for three years in August last year for being concerned in the production of cannabis.
At a financial confiscation hearing today at Leeds Crown Court, judge Tom Bayliss KC ruled that Kokaj would pay a nominal fee of £1 after the prosecution said he played a “minor” role in the criminal enterprise.
Prosecutor Michael Bosomworth said the gang had converted three of Banks’ properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre into cannabis farms with potential yields of up to £456,000. The gang made an estimated £345,000 from the drug plot.
However, Kokaj, played a “lesser role” and was paid just £80 a day for his part in the conspiracy and so made a financial gain of £1,120, added Mr Bosomworth.
He said that Kokaj, from London but of no fixed address, had no assets.
Mr Bayliss KC duly made the nominal £1 order due to Kokaj’s limited financial means.
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Kokaj didn’t attend the confiscation hearing and the court heard he was “probably nowhere to be found”.
When he was sentenced last summer, he was told he would only have to serve half of the three-year sentence behind bars, less the time he had spent on remand, which means he is likely to have been released from jail.
Yoko Banks case adjourned again
Banks, 74, of Scargill Road, Harrogate, was also due to face financial confiscation today but her case was adjourned yet again for the service of financial documents setting out her complex web of assets and properties.
Earlier this year, the former B&B boss and property tycoon failed in her bid to have her conviction quashed after being convicted of three counts of being concerned in the production of cannabis.
Yoko Banks
The court heard the disgraced pensioner was the “facilitator” for the Albanian gang’s cannabis-cultivation enterprise.
Her six co-conspirators, Kokaj, Visar Sellaj, 33, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, were jailed for a combined 22 years for various offences including drug supply and production of the highly potent skunk cannabis in August 2021.
Banks, who rented out her three properties to the gang to convert into cannabis farms, was jailed for three-and-a-half years and is due to be released from New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire on December 31, halfway through her sentence.
At a previous adjourned confiscation hearing, Mr Bosomworth said that Banks owned a string of “highly marketable” properties in some of Harrogate’s most desirable areas.
He added, however, that her “complicated accounts and property empire” were proving to be a major sticking point in the ongoing financial investigation.
On that occasion, Banks claimed she had no money because it had been frozen in her bank account. She said, however, that she had “a lot” of assets.
Ringleader made £438,000
Mr Bosomworth said that Sellaj, the gang’s ringleader, had made £438,000 from the cannabis-cultivation enterprise and that he had £76,000 in the bank which he could pay back into public coffers.
At a contested financial confiscation hearing in May, it was found that Indrit Brahaj had jointly benefited from the criminal enterprise to the tune of £133,328. In his case, a confiscation order of £24,082 was made.
Kujtim Brahaj was found to have benefited to the tune of £1,194. The judge made a nominal confiscation order of £1 in his case due to limited financial means.
The prosecution said that Banks rented out her properties to the “professional” drug gang for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant profit”, though she had no part in the actual cultivation process.
Their mega-money plot finally unravelled when police were called to a five-bedroom villa owned by Banks in September 2020 after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the cannabis farm.
Banks, who had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work, was due to be paid at least £12,000 a month in rent for use of the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits, said Mr Bosomworth.
Her final confiscation hearing was adjourned to January 6 next year to give her defence counsel time to provide evidence that some of the bank transfers to her account were “legitimate”.
Ringleader Sellaj’s financial confiscation proceedings were adjourned for a full-day hearing to determine the amount of cash available to him.
Ex-Harrogate guest house owner Yoko Banks given court ultimatum
Former Harrogate guest house owner Yoko Banks was told today she would not be allowed to change solicitors again after the latest attempt to recover any gains from her crime was adjourned.
Banks, 74, of Scargill Road, was jailed for three-and-a-half years in August 2021 for renting out her properties to an Albanian drug gang for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant profit”.
She appeared at Leeds Crown Court today via a link from New Hall Prison in West Yorkshire for a confiscation hearing.
It was the latest in a series of attempts to recover any financial gain under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
A previous hearing in May was postponed when the court heard Banks intended to appeal her conviction and wanted to leave her legal team in favour of another firm of solicitors.
At the hearing before that in January, the Crown said it was not yet in a position to make a financial confiscation ruling because Banks’ defence team needed more time to delve into her “complicated” accounts and extensive “property empire”.
The court heard today she intended to change solicitors again but Judge Christopher Batty told her there was “absolutely no way” he would permit this.
He told her she either had to stick with current solicitor Sian Barber or “deal with it by yourself”.
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Ms Barber said she had spoken with Banks, who has been granted legal aid, for the first time this morning and had 600 pages of notes to go through.
She added she was due to meet Banks again next month and therefore requested an adjournment.
In adjourning the case until November 4, Judge Batty said it had been a “wretched hearing”.
Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting, said:
“Her case has been dreadfully complicated. Frankly, she has messed everyone around for months.”
London gang
Banks was sentenced in August 2021, after the court heard that a London gang had invested tens of thousands of pounds into three cannabis factories at Banks’ properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre.
The criminals had even dug a trench outside the three-storey Edwardian villa on Alexandra Road through which they fed electricity cables to the house to power the “highly sophisticated” cultivation system and bypass the electricity grid.
Their plot unravelled when police were called to the five-bedroom villa on September 26, 2020, after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the cannabis farm.
Harrogate guest house owner was ‘facilitator’ in £500k cannabis racketA Harrogate woman who played the role of “facilitator” in a half-a-million-pound cannabis racket will have her accounts scrutinised before a financial-confiscation hearing to determine how much she pays back.
Yoko Banks, 73, a former guest-house owner, rented out her properties to an Albanian drug gang for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant profit”, Leeds Crown Court heard.
The disgraced pensioner was jailed for three-and-a-half years in August last year after she admitted three counts of being concerned in the production of cannabis.
Her six co-conspirators, Visar Sellaj, 33, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, Andi Kokaj, 23, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, an illegal immigrant, were jailed for a combined 22 years for various offences including drug supply and production of the highly potent skunk cannabis.
‘Complicated property empire’
Banks, who owns a string of “highly marketable” properties in some of Harrogate’s most desirable areas, now faces financial punishment under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), which will determine how much she has to pay back for her part in the drug plot worth at least half a million.
She was back in court today via video link from New Hall women’s prison in Wakefield.
Prosecutor Michael Bosomworth said the Crown was not yet in a position to make a financial confiscation ruling because Banks’ defence team needed more time to delve into her “complicated” accounts and extensive “property empire”.
He added:
“It’s a somewhat complicated property empire and there’s going to be some time (needed) to prepare it.”
He said that Banks’ solicitors were hiring a forensic accountant to pore over her properties and assets.
Yoko Banks was jailed at Leeds Crown Court last year. Picture: the Stray Ferret.
Banks’ defence counsel confirmed that a forensic accountant had been instructed to scrutinise her accounts and the “considerable amount” of properties and other assets” she owned.
Judge Neil Clark granted the defence an extra eight weeks to carry out an intensive audit of Banks’ assets.
She and her co-defendants will be back in court on Monday via video link when new dates will be set for the POCA hearings.
London gang invested in Banks’ properties
At the sentence hearing in August, the court heard that the “professional”, London-based gang had invested tens of thousands of pounds into three cannabis factories at Banks’s properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre.
The criminals had even dug a trench outside the three-storey Edwardian villa on Alexandra Road through which they fed electricity cables to the house to power the “highly sophisticated” cultivation system and bypass the electricity grid.
Their plot finally unravelled when police were called to the five-bedroom villa on September 26 last year after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the lucrative cannabis farm.
Officers found 283 plants in four growing rooms inside the mock-Tudor house, which was fitted with CCTV cameras. Chillingly, they also found a “large” crossbow and arrows next to the front door. The plants had a potential yield of up to 21 kilos.
Mr Bosomworth said the “organised” gang had operated the lighting, electrical and “security” systems remotely through broadband technology and were even able to watch a “live feed” of the drugs bust over the internet.
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There were other large grows at two of Banks’s other properties, which had the “capability of producing industrial amounts” of skunk.
She had rented the properties to the Albanians through an “unidentified individual who goes by the name of Francesco”, who sub-let the houses to the gang’s ringleader Sellaj.
Before the drug raid, the gang had fled in a Transit van and an Audi which were “trapped” on the M1 by police in Hertfordshire and finally stopped on the M25 just after midnight.
Police found 30kg of “saleable”, harvested cannabis plants inside the van worth about £300,000.
Inside the £26,000 Audi SQ5, which belonged to Sellaj, police found £3,675 in cash and an 18-carat-gold Rolex watch worth £28,000.
As well as the 283 plants at the Alexandra Road factory, there were also 143 “root balls” from previous harvests and 6kg of cannabis flower buds. The “industrial” operation would have yielded between 11kg and 33 kilos worth up to £330,000.
Fifty-nine cannabis plants, worth up to £83,000, were found at Banks’s Somerset Road property and 86 plants, with a “bulk value” of up to £62,000, were discovered at the house on Woodlands Road.
The total potential yield of the 395 plants was 45 kilos, with a combined value of up to £456,000. This was in addition to the 30 kilos found in the van and did not include previous harvests.
Banks played ‘facilitating role’
Although Banks was not involved in the cultivation, she had played a “facilitating” or advisory role in the plot. She was in “regular communication” with ‘Francesco’ and Sellaj through Whatsapp messages and was constantly “pressing to be paid by them”.
Banks -—who had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work — was due to be paid at least £12,000 a month in rent for the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits.
Her defence team claimed she had let out the properties to “supplement” her weekly pension due to financial pressures.
It’s understood that Banks had been planning to appeal her conviction but had since abandoned the idea.
The Alexa House guest house on Ripon Road has been sold and is now expected to be converted into a home.
Sandra Doherty, the owner, said the Victorian property had been on the market for just five days before a buyer was found. It was sold for an undisclosed sum.
Ms Doherty said she was “delighted” to have sold the building, which she has owned for 15 years.
She recently had an application to convert the guest house into apartments refused by Harrogate Borough Council.
She said:
“Ninety-nine per cent of my guests were lovely and I had a lot of return visitors.”
Ms Doherty will soon step down from her role as chief executive of the Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce and retire to Northumberland.
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Alexa House was built in 1896 by the renowned art collector Baron Conrad Adolphus du Bois de Ferrieres.
It was built as a hunting lodge for its London-based owners to spend time enjoying Harrogate’s spa and riding in the nearby countryside.