By Zoah Hedges-Stocks

Two arrested after paint-bombs thrown at fancy bailiffs’ dinner

Housing protesters have clashed with police officers as they held a ‘mock eviction’ at a fancy dinner for bailiffs where they say people were “receiving awards for making families homeless.

[Photograph by Joel Benjamin]

The CICM British Credit Awards, where tables cost from £3,000 to £4,000, are meant to celebrate the work of bailiffs, credit agencies and debt-collectors.

However, the black-tie event was interrupted by angry activists who blocked the doors, threw paint-bombs at tuxedo-wearing partygoers, and waved placards that read ‘social housing not social cleansing’.

Photographs from the scene on Chiswell Street appear to show protesters on the floor being restrained by police.

City of London Police confirmed that two men, one aged 22, have been arrested for common assault.

Protesters threw paint-bombs at guests in black tie [Photograph by Kemi Lutumba]

The #EvictTheBailiffs protest has been set up by Focus E15 – a group of mothers who were evicted from the Focus E15 hostel, and so occupied the Carpenters Row flats in Stratford last September,

They said the demonstration was against “social cleansing and the criminalisation of poverty”.

Their Facebook page says: “Since companies like ‘The Sherriff’s Office’ receive nominations by throwing people and their belongings out onto the cold streets of London, we intend to turn the front entrance of the Brewery into a mock eviction site for attendees to experience before an evening of champagne, three-course dinners, and the kudos of their peers,”

People are being encouraged to bring rubbish and broken belongings to the awards venue, to recreate the atmosphere of an eviction.

[Photograph by Owen Espley]