"I think he should be ashamed of what he's done."
A West Midlands letting agent has been accused of failing to return tenants’ deposits and pass rent payments to landlords, with the sums owed running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Amun Singh Judge, who goes by Tony Singh, operates Morgan, Payne & Knightly (MPK), which has had branches across Birmingham, Telford and Wolverhampton.
Tenants and landlords have accused Singh and the company of failing to return deposits and pass on rental payments. In some cases, county court judgments have been issued against Singh and MPK.
Both have also been reported to Trading Standards.
A BBC investigation has uncovered evidence suggesting more than 100 tenants are waiting for deposits to be returned. Individual sums owed to tenants and landlords range from £700 to £16,000.
Raman Kaur and her family rented a property through MPK until September 2025, when they bought their own home.
The family is still waiting for its £900 deposit, which Kaur says was not placed in a registered deposit protection scheme.
She said: “It’s not right, he shouldn’t be doing that with our money. That’s our sweat, our hard work.
“It’s very stressful having a young family and with the financial crisis that we’re all going through.
“We’ve saved that money, we’ve budgeted and we’ve had to tell the kids they can’t have things.
“I think he should be ashamed of what he’s done. It’s not his money, he didn’t earn it.”
Kaur said the family visited MPK’s West Bromwich branch to resolve the issue, only to find it had closed. They then tried contacting Singh and his staff by phone each day.
The property is owned by an unnamed landlord who is owed £700.
Sandwell Council, which covers West Bromwich, said Singh and MPK were no longer operating in the borough.
However, the BBC confirmed Singh and MPK continue to operate elsewhere in the West Midlands.
Mike Heighway, who owns four properties in Telford, said he had stopped receiving rental payments through MPK from July 2024.
There is currently no mandatory regulation of letting and managing agents in England, although many agents belong to professional trade associations.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate licensing requirements.
However, landlords and letting agents in the UK are required to protect tenants’ deposits in an approved scheme when the relevant tenancy rules apply.
Wolverhampton Trading Standards told the BBC it had found instances where MPK had not protected tenants’ deposits.
However, a spokesperson said no action had been taken because the properties advertised by MPK were located in neighbouring council areas.
Telford and Wrekin Council said it had seen no evidence of offences under Trading Standards legislation. It advised people with complaints about rogue landlords to report them to the council.
During the investigation, the BBC spoke to six ex-MPK employees who worked across three branches. They said they had never seen Singh place tenants’ deposits into a regulated scheme.
Former worker Tilly* said: “I think it was more rare to see him doing things by the book or to see a deposit certificate or correct rent being paid to a landlord.”
Reportedly, seven employees left MPK in protest over Singh’s management of the business. Three reportedly left after a landlord discovered that a property was being used as a cannabis farm.
Tilly added: “A next door neighbour called up and said that a house in Oldbury had been used for drugs.
“It was awful. The ceilings were cut through, the walls had damage to them, it needed whole new flooring, and it was quite obvious that the whole house needed re-decorating.
“You could see that they’d slept in one room and used the rest of the rooms for growing drugs.”
West Midlands Police confirmed a cannabis farm had been discovered at the property. The people living there had disappeared.
The property owner said he became suspicious after his rental payments stopped.
He later discovered that energy company npower had forced entry to remove electricity meters after thousands of pounds in bills went unpaid. This has cost him £32,000 to repair the damage and is owed a further £12,000 in rent.
Singh has been contacted to respond to the allegations but he has not responded.
According to the BBC, Singh continues to trade as Morgan, Payne and Knightly, receives money from tenants and is contacted by landlords seeking outstanding payments.
There are eight county court judgments against Singh and MPK relating to unpaid tenant deposits, rent owed to landlords and unpaid staff wages.
Former employees told the BBC they were owed tens of thousands of pounds in wages, pension contributions, sickness and maternity pay.
In 2025, MPK’s former West Bromwich branch was fined £2,150 by the government for failing to comply with UK money laundering regulations.
In April 2026, a county court found MPK had unfairly dismissed a former Sandwell employee, failed to pay her the minimum wage and deducted £1,726 for tax and National Insurance that had not been paid.
For those still waiting for money owed to them, the uncertainty remains.
