Rogue landlord told to pay

Notorious rooming house operator George Maatouk has been ordered to pay more than $9000 in accumulated fines and costs for breaches of the residential tenancies act over the past two years.

As the operator of the Sydney Road rooming house that burned down in 2006, causing the deaths of a young couple, Mr Maatouk featured prominently in the 2009 Coroner’s inquiry, which heard that he earned $40,000 a week running 60 properties.

Mr Maatouk, who has convictions for fraud and forgery, is one of the four directors of Melbourne’s largest rooming house service, Victorian Accommodation Centre — via redwolf.newsvine.com