A SINGLE mother lost £700-worth of her business's stock after a landlord threw it away.
Beautician Catrina Brooker, from Fig Tree Court in Hayes, had stopped working after the premature birth of her son but was hoping to start up again next September when he started nursery.
She had been storing the majority of her stock under a staircase in her building but was told by Paradigm Housing that she would need to remove it because of a fire risk.
On the day officers came by to clear the area, Ms Brooker was caring for her mother, who had an operation on her heart a few days before.
The 31-year-old told the Gazette: "I have spoken to Paradigm regularly about the fact I am over-crowded. I have four children in a two-bed flat.
"I don't have any room to keep my stock and a friend who had been looking after it was redecorating so I had to take it back, I had nowhere else to put it.
"I had been at my mother's from morning until evening to care for her, when I came back to find all of my stuff gone I was mortified."
Paradigm said it had "disposed" of the stock, which includes wax pots, spatulas, eyelash extensions, glue, tinting gel, nail varnish and a portable bed.
Ms Brooker was a sole trader who had run her business for eight years before her son Isaac was born three months early on Christmas Eve last year, and she was forced to give it up as he recovered in hospital. Her partner left her in March.
"I didn't want to give up my business, I was fitting in as many customers as I could and I was sleeping in my lunch breaks," she said. "I have got a lot of clients and people who are still friends and are waiting for me to go back to work. I don't want to be on benefits but I have no choice. Now I have lost my business."
Jon Theobald, from Paradigm Housing Group, said: "We understand Ms Brooker's frustrations, however she was spoken to and written to by the housing officer in November, warning that any items left in the communal area would be removed - and told on what day - as they are a fire risk and breach of tenancy.
"If any resident was unable to move items themselves we would have been happy to assist if contacted."
