An ex-cage fighter made a fortune from packing up to 40 vulnerable people on housing benefits into a five-bedroom house in Lewisham.

While Mustafa Kemal Mustafa made as much as £12,000 a month for the property, his tenants were paying rent to top and tail in bunks in shared rooms, according to BBC programme Panorama. 

Mr Mustafa belongs to an increasing number of rogue landlords who take advantage of people in desperate situations because of the lack of accomodation available to housing benefit recipients. 

Roz Spencer, who co-ordinates Lewishams Rogue Landlord Taskforce, told the programme: "He was taking them in, not providing support, just taking housing benefits on their account straight into his pocket."

Mr Mustafa had been told he could have a maximum of 12 people, but Ms Spencer said there were 40 people living in the five-bedroom house at one point.

She said: "It was desperately dangerous, if you were to touch a bar where there was no fuse to protect you, you would just fry.

"The wiring was so dangerous that the enraged company cut the power but somebody illegally reconnected it."

Despite receiving thousands of pounds from his renters who were living in squalor, he claimed he didn't make a profit because the money was spent on house repairs. 

A Lewisham council spokesperson said: "It is not possible to give hard empirical evidence of the extent of housing offences in the borough as much of the evidence is behind closed doors. 

"One of the values of a broadcast like the Panorama expose is that we expect it to encourage other victims of rogue landlords to come forward and report the offenders. Mr Mustafa, who featured in the programme, has already been prosecuted and our action has resulted in the largest and most overcrowded of his squalid properties being removed permanently from his control. 

"Work will continue to tackle any and all outstanding offences." 

During the last year the council has targeted ten rogue landlords in the area and five further prosecutions have been prepared.