AN UNCLE has apologised for the behaviour of his nephew who allowed his home to become a base for drug-taking and wild parties.

Daniel Sargeant, 20, was kicked out of his one-bedroom flat in Merrylands, Laindon, after it became a magnet for antisocial behaviour.

Basildon Council moved in to clear the trashed flat in November, after repossessing the property.

Sargeant’s uncle Jason Fuller, 42, who lives around the corner in Victoria Road, said his nephewhad foolishly sublet the property to friends in November last year when he moved away to Southend, then Cambridge.

He said: “I found it quite shameful that residents had their lives turned upside down because of my family. I don’t agree with anyone dealing or taking drugs or carrying on like that.

“If I found anyone doing it I would be on to the police immediately.

I have strong views against them.”

Police and Basildon Council were called to incidents including neighbours complaining they could smell cannabis when babies were crying inside, and of a sick dog which was thought to have been left in the flat for weeks.

In May police raided the flat where they arrested a man on suspicion of possessing a firearm.

Mr Fuller added: “I want to apologise. If I had gone there in November last year I might have been able to put a stop to it before it got out of hand. I would have phoned the police and the council and said ‘right, there’s undesirables living in that flat and it’s been sublet by my nephew’.

“Since Daniel has moved to Cambridge, he’s found a job in a pub and he’s living a responsible life, not one of mayhem he left in Essex.”

Phil Turner, deputy leader of Basildon Council responsible for housing, said: “He doesn’t have to apologise, it wasn’t his doing, but I feel it is a really nice gesture."