Residents held a party after their ‘neighbour from hell’ was evicted from a house that was left needing £25,000 worth of repairs.

Katie Bentley left her Bransholme home, which she rented from P&J Properties, needing desperate work after her landlord Phil Withnall spent months desperately trying to get her evicted.

There were holes in the walls, smashed up windows, ripped up floorboards and mounds of rubbish in multiple rooms, prompting Mr Withnall to eventually get her kicked out through the High Court.

Miss Bentley was evicted in March following a lengthy battle with her landlord and neighbours said they would throw a party if she ever left.

And on Saturday, neighbours kept their promise by getting the whole community together for a ‘Getting Our Street Back Party’.

A 57-year-old woman, who helped to organise the celebrations, said: ‘We’re having a big barbecue, we’ve got a bouncy castle and we’ve got kids’ games after collecting £85 from residents.

‘It has been absolutely great [since Miss Bentley left]. It’s lovely – we can sleep on a night and it’s just great.

‘Everyone is so relieved and it means the kids can play out in the street with no backlash off her.’

When residents first raised concerns about Miss Bentley, she claimed her house was targeted by ‘smackheads’ while she was in prison in October 2018.

She said: ‘I went to jail in October for a week for failing to surrender because I didn’t want to hand myself in to the police.

‘While I was in prison my windows got smashed by smackheads. All the loud noises the neighbours hear is me getting beaten up. It’s me shouting for help.

‘I’ve not been staying at this house. I’ve been staying anywhere I can because I’ve been too scared to go back to the house.

‘People go round and let themselves in because the landlord won’t secure the locks. They climb in and out and they have nicked all my baby’s toys.’

She was ‘upset’ after finding out about the animosity on the estate and said in January 2019 that she had gone teetotal and had stopped taking drugs in order to make her life more stable.

Speaking at the time, she said: ‘I’m upset [about my neighbours] because they are my friends. They don’t know what is going on.

‘They’ve got their children and they are going to be scared – I would if it were my children. I’m getting my landlord round because he is offering me to move out.

‘I’ve been in McDonald’s to use the wifi to try and find a flat somewhere because I’m not doing drugs anymore and I need somewhere I can go where I’m safe.’

The 57-year-old resident, who was one of many to complain about Miss Bentley’s behaviour, said since she left the house, they had problems with break-ins until the house was boarded up.

However, she now understands that Miss Bentley is doing well for herself after moving to a different area of Hull and she wished her the best of luck for the future.

She said: ‘We’ve had more problems since she went.

‘We’ve had people trying to break into the house and someone smashed up all the windows again.

‘Katie has turned her life around. We’ve heard she is doing well and wish her good luck because that is what she needs.’

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