A respected magistrate's reputation lay in tatters yesterday after she was convicted of unlawfully evicting a Romanian tenant.
Stephanie Lippiatt, 63, was arrested as she tried to remove Maria Percec and her boyfriend George Stanka from a property she owned in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.
Widow Lippiatt, allegedly told Miss Percec, 28, that she was a 'Romanian ****'.
She will now be sentenced alongside her 6ft 7in henchman who has admitted a race charge.
After her arrest Lippiatt - a magistrate for over 20 years and a Samaritan's volunteer - was recorded by an officer outside the police station saying: ‘They are bloody foreigners and they will get away with it.’
She was also convicted by the jury at Croydon Crown Court of causing criminal damage to Miss Percec's property, but was acquitted of that offence being racially aggravated and was also found not guilty of racially aggravated assault.
Victor Hawes, 41, who assisted Lippiatt, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated criminal damage and both defendants will be sentenced on April 7.
‘She came in and started swearing at me to “get the f*** out of the house”,’ ex-box room tenant Miss Percec told the jury during the seven-day trial. ‘She pushed me and stamped on my feet.’
Miss Percec told the jury Lippiatt was unhappy about the tenant's boyfriend George Stanka, 31, staying regularly overnight in her room and demanded a rent increase from £150 to £250 per month.
‘She said “I want more money or you are out of here.” That's all she spoke about. More money,’ said Miss Percec.
‘The £250 was way too much. The house was in really bad condition, it was a very old house.
‘The room was tiny, I have now got a room six times that size.’
Lippiatt, who has a rental portfolio of eight properties, denies being a slum landlady although the defence team conceded the property was not ‘Buckingham Palace’.
The couple were naked in bed when Lippiatt and Hawes began banging on their door late at night, demanding they leave the property.
‘It was really loud banging, like someone hitting the door with a fist three times,’ explained Miss Percec, who had managed to throw on a dressing gown before the defendants burst in.
‘She pulled the covers off George. He was naked and she looked at him and shouted “get the f*** out”.’
Miss Percec told police Lippiatt hurled a chest down the stairs then deliberately trampled on her belongings, before tossing items out the front door.
The couple were also intimidated by Hawes. ‘Victor was behind her, he's massive, the size of the whole door. You can't compete with that force,’ said Miss Percec.
Lippiatt also shouted: ‘You are not living in my house. You are not living on my back,’ the jury was told.
Miss Percec told police Hawes repeatedly racially abused and swore at them.
Throughout his race rant, filmed on Mr Stanka's mobile phone, Lippiatt is standing next to him in earshot.
The jury were played the footage in which an enraged Hawes throws the tenants' belongings down the stairs and Lippiatt is seen kicking items out of the front door.
‘I was left with bruises on my feet and around my knee,’ said Miss Percec. ‘The police saw it and took photos the next day.
"She was trying really hard to hurt me and push me and get me out of that room. I have been abused verbally and physically.’
The jury was told Hawes also called the couple ‘Romanian cockroaches’.
Lippiatt claims Miss Percec has done a ‘hatchet job’ on her so her evidence would be believed and to bolster a compensation claim.
The JP told the jury: ‘Last year when I was 62, I would have said it wouldn't have even crossed my mind that I could find myself in this position.’
After two decades on the bench Lippiatt finally discovered what it felt like to be a defendant when police locked her in a cell.
‘I completely lost control of myself. I was screaming and I was crying and I was begging them to let me out.’
She lost her removals businessman husband Clive when he was killed by a drunken motorcyclist.
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