THE BIG RETORT

THE BIG RETORT SPECIAL REPORT A Borough without a conscience Since 2020, two British citizens — Ahmet and Şahin Gök of Meze Mangal — have lived under the shadow of a law never meant for them. Their “crime”? Installing a kitchen extractor in response to a neighbour’s complaint. Their punishment? Criminal prosecution, confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), and the seizure of their passports by Lewisham Council lawyers. This is not regulation. It is retribution. It is “making an example.” Lewisham Council, acting through its out-housed solicitors Browne Jacobson and its barrister Philip Vollans of No. 5 Chambers, has turned a planning dispute into a criminal trial. The council did so while telling magistrates that POCA escalation was “mandatory” — a statement that was, and remains, false. The matter could have been dealt with at magistrates’ court, AND an unlimited fine charged. But Lewisham would not have received over 37% of the take. That’s POCA. The ...

  Following Lewisham Council’s response to our Freedom of Information request (Ref 33066881 ), The Big Retort has discovered a clear contradiction in the Council’s own data regarding its refusal to allow an HMO due to the "one household only" policy in its leases. The Council stated that since launching its Additional HMO Licensing Scheme on 5 April 2022, no licences have been refused on the basis of the “one household only” clause. Yet The Big Retort holds a copy of a refusal letter dated 17 September 2025, which explicitly cites that same clause. Lewisham also admitted that it has no policy, no legal guidance, and no Equality Impact Assessment for applying the clause in licensing decisions. Despite this, it has warned or advised 119 leaseholders that their leases prevent licensing, and issued two Temporary Exemption Notices on that basis. What happened to the other 117 households? The Council has provided no information on outcomes or enforcement , leaving open ...

  Euston, scene one. Picture, if you will, Bedlam on steroids. Travellers huddle on the concourse like pelicans, necks craned at the departure board. The platform flashes up; the herd bolts. “Reserved” on the London–Liverpool line is not a promise, merely a polite suggestion — hence the sprint. Lime Street arrives early. We stroll fifteen minutes to our home-from-home, the excellent Hope Street Hotel.  It’s a perfect spot: near the action, not in it. The corner studios on or above the third floor are the most sort-after parts of the hotel. It’s not just the views! Colin Corin Warm greeting from Colin, practical tips on where to eat, drink and (if you must) dance. Americans abound, museums and Beatles tours are a wander away, and the Philharmonic Hall glows around the corner.  The corner suite came with a gorgeous blonde A brief origin story. The building (The London Carriage Works, 1869) was meant to be apartments until the numbers said “hotel.” Early guests included ...

Lewisham Council’s use of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) against the Gök brothers of Meze Mangal has sparked a public backlash, a £20,000 fundraiser, and now questions in Parliament. The Big Retort...   Brenda Dacres What began as a fight for fairness in the Gök/POCA case has become a bit of a movement.  In the prosecution of  Meze Mangal , brought under the authority of Lewisham mayor  Brenda Dacres , two hardworking Turkish restaurant owners have been criminalised, had their passports seized, and now face the loss of decades of work. But people power — through a  GoFundMe page  — is saying, with one voice:  enough.  Since we   first exposed Lewisham Council’s potential misuse of the Proceeds of Crime Act against Ahmet and Şahin Gök , the response has been an overwhelming 500 plus donations.   The fund is closing in on £20,000 , needed to meet the eye-watering legal costs driven up not by the brothers but by a publi...

From extractor fan to existential fight How Lewisham Council’s prosecution of Meze Mangal spiralled from a planning notice into a multimillion-pound Proceeds of Crime case — and how our discovery of one forgotten court document may change everything for the Gök brothers. The Big Retort… In chess, a pawn captures by moving diagonally one square into the space the enemy piece once held. In this analogy, Lewisham Council is the queen: powerful, overreaching, convinced of its own invincibility. We — the citizens, the pawns — advance carefully, one square at a time, playing by the rules. But when the board is blocked and process bends, there remains one move the powerful in their Catford tower never anticipate: The quiet capture.  We recently reported the Meze Mangal case — following two Turkish brothers, Ahmet and Sahin, hard-working British citizens, whose passports have been seized. Persecuted by officialdom and juggling day-to-day restaurant life under a white-h...

From Borough of Sanctuary to dystopian world — Lewisham Council places landmark restaurant on the POCA grill.  THE BIG RETORT… Some days, when I pass the grimy windows at Laurence House in Catford, I swear I can hear the sound of someone desperately singing from the floors above: “You’ve gotta pick a POCA or two, boys…” Lewisham once styled itself a Borough of Sanctuary. But today it feels more like a borough for bounty hunters — where local businesses and good neighbours aren’t nurtured, but criminalised for profit. The game is called POCA . In plain English, the Proceeds of Crime Act  works like this: after a criminal conviction is secured, a prosecuting authority can ask the court to treat unexplained money or assets as “criminal benefit” unless proved otherwise.  The trawl through the person’s past can prove costly, both mentally and financially, as it stretches back six years from when proceedings commence .  The court then sets a “benefit” figure and an amount ...