A millionaire landlady who kept a ‘domestic slave’ who she punched, kicked and slapped has been forced to pay her £200,000 in wages and benefits.
Farzana Kausar, 58, hired the vulnerable woman and then took control of every aspect of her life.
For 16 years Jacqueline Whittington, 60, was forced to work 14 hour days, cooking, cleaning and looking after Kausar’s three young children.
When she was displeased with her, Kausar would punch, kick, slap and verbally abuse Miss Whittington.
Not only did the landlady not pay her anything for the ‘years of drudgery’ she also took her benefits money.
Farzana Kausar, 59, was locked up for six years and eight months in December 2022 after she was convicted of keeping a person in slavery and attempting to pervert the court of justice
The callous landlady has been ordered to pay her victim £200,000, which includes benefits she took from her, along with unpaid wages during her time in servitude
Kausar’s victim, Jacqueline Whittington (pictured) was forced to work 14 hour days, cooking, cleaning and looking after Kausar’s three young children
In December 2022 Kausar was jailed for six years and eight months after she was found guilty of keeping a person in slavery or servitude.
Judge Christine Laing KC, telling her: ‘You exploited that vulnerability and had a wholly conceited disregard for her as a person. You exerted more and more control over her.’
Now Kausar, of Worthing, East Sussex has paid back Miss Whittington £200,000 owed in wages and benefits.
The wealthy landlady had to sell a property to pay the victim back or face another 30 months behind bars. She has now settled the order.
Adrian Foster, Head of the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: ‘Millionaire Farzana Kausar subjected a vulnerable woman to a campaign of abuse and took complete control over her life, stripping her of her freedom over 16 years and exploiting her for her own profit.
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‘We robustly pursued Kausar for her criminal benefit, and I hope these reparations can go some way to compensate the victim.
Lewes Crown Court heard Kausar was a wealthy woman who owned several prestigious properties in Brighton and London which she rented out to tenants.
Miss Whittington, 60, was a vulnerable woman who had left her husband and four children in the 1990s.
She first met Kausar around 2004 when she was living in a flat in Worthing, East Sussex owned by the defendant’s mother.
Miss Whittington was asked to carry out some work for the family and was taken to London to carry out to decorate a house.
But while she was there Kausar told her she wasn’t wanted back at the Worthing flat and would instead be housed in London.
Shortly afterwards she moved in with Kausar, her husband Mohammed Hanif and their young daughter Isla.
Initially she worked as a live-in domestic servant, carrying out household chores while staying at a variety of addresses in London and Brighton.
Mrs Whittington did not have an employment contract and, although Kausar promised to pay her for her work, the mother of four never received a wage.
Kausar, who sent her daughter to the exclusive £14,000 a year Roedean girls’ school, took Mrs Whittington’s benefits from her though she regularly bought her cigarettes and alcohol.
Over the years, the court heard, she took around £80,000 worth of benefits from Miss Whittington.
Ryan Richter, prosecuting, said the violence began when Kausar threw a recycling box at her for leaving some cooked meat out in the kitchen.
When the family went abroad on holiday Mrs Whittington would travel with them to act as their domestic servant.
Miss Whittington told police that although she did possess a mobile phone it was often confiscated by the defendant.
And when her mother died, she only found out it had happened weeks later and the funeral had already taken place.
Mr Richter said the total control exercised by Kausar led to ‘years of drudgery’ and left Miss Whittington suicidal.
He said: ‘Miss Whittington was abused verbally and beaten physically, slapped, kicked and punched and was dragged across the table. A car door was closed on her ankle, fracturing it’.
The alarm was raised by the family’s nanny, Michelle Ormiston after she witnessed the ‘shocking’ treatment of the live-in helper.
Both social services and the police were alerted and Miss Whittington was taken from the household.
Kausar, who lived in a seafront property in Hove, was arrested by police in 2019 and charged with holding a person in slavery or servitude between August 2015 and May 2019.
She was also charged with attempting to pervert the course of public justice by getting Mrs Whittington to withdraw her charges.
Kausar was sentenced to six years for the first charge and eight months for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Modern slavery laws were only introduced in 2015 in response to a growing need for legislation.
