Students' lockdown-busting party ended with trashed £2m Airbnb mansion

Student couple’s lockdown-busting birthday party ended with trashed £2m Airbnb Sandbanks mansion after it was invaded by 50 gatecrashers when they posted location on social media

• Adekoya Odukoya and Suliat Okunlola pleaded guilty and handed a £100 fine
• Raucous party broke out prompting neighbours in Poole to call the police

A couple whose birthday party led to a £2million Airbnb Sandbanks mansion being trashed after it was gatecrashed by 50 revellers in a breach of lockdown rules have been fined.

University students Adekoya Odukoya and Suliat Okunlola rented out the luxury home for a maximum of four people for two days.

Odukoya, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, and Okunlola posted social media updates about their £500 stay on the Millionaire’s Row in Poole, Dorset.

But the posts ‘gave the location away’ to dozens of their followers, leading to more than 50 young people from London and Hertfordshire descending on the exclusive property.

A raucous party broke out prompting angry neighbours in the affluent resort to call the police at around midnight – with reports of drug paraphernalia and laughing gas canisters left behind. 

Adekoya Odukoya, right, and Suliat Okunlola leaving Poole Magistrates Court

Okunlola posted social media updates about their £500 stay on the Millionaire’s Row in Poole, Dorset, which ‘gave the location away’ to dozens of their followers

The luxury home was supposed to be rented out for a maximum of four people 

A court heard that a pre-arranged coach attended the address to take the revellers home, suggesting the party was not a spur-of-the moment event. 

A court heard that the party happened on the evening of March 15, 2021. At the time the country was still under Covid restrictions with guidelines at the time stating people should stay at home. 

Odukoya, from Watford, Herts, and Okunlola, from Peckham, south east London, were charged with holding a gathering of more than 30 people in a Tier 4 area and appeared at Poole Magistrates’ Court this week. 

Officers broke up the bash at 3am, by which time the grand home had been trashed inside.

Neighbours reported finding hundreds of laughing gas canisters littering the street the next morning.

Nick Briant, the businessman owner of the Sandbanks house, arrived a few hours later to find the damage.

He was so incensed he blocked his clients’ car in to stop them from leaving.

Victoria Hill, prosecuting, said: ‘The owner of the property had rented it out through Airbnb and had forgotten to cancel the booking as he had done with other bookings during that period.

The house in Sandbanks, Dorset, which the couple stayed in and threw a birthday party

Inside the luxury home – before it was trashed by the party 

The aftermarth of the party at the luxury pad – the owner came back to find the damage

Officers broke up the bash at 3am, by which time the grand home had been trashed inside

‘The defendants attended on March 15 to celebrate one of their birthdays. Once at the address they seemed to have posted various things on social media about what they were up to.

‘During the social media posts they either mentioned the address or gave the location away.

‘In the early hours of March 16, a number of neighbours complained about the party and police officers attended.

‘They found in excess of 50 people in attendance. Officers dispersed all the individuals from the address and a pre-arranged coach attended and took a large number of people that attended the party away.

‘The following morning the owner said the defendants were going to be attending to collect their car and belongings and the police turned up to deal with them for these matters.

‘They were cautioned and told police they didn’t organise the party, that everyone that turned up must have seen the location and taken it upon themselves to attend and it got out of control.

‘The owner found a camera, on that there was at least one video that suggested the defendants had organised and talked about a party at the address.’

the owner said he had no idea those booking were planning to hold a party and was only aware of it when he was called by police in the middle of the night

The luxury property – the owner said he spent £1,000 to get the property back to a liveable standard

Okunlola and Odukoya pleaded guilty and were both handed a £100 fine and ordered to pay £119 in costs

Read more: Majestic 11-bedroom country mansion with 46 acres of land goes up for sale 

Okunlola, a 20-year-old politics and international relations student, and Odukoya, also 20, and a fashion and business student, pleaded guilty and were both handed a £100 fine and ordered to pay £119 in costs.

Mr Briant, 38, said he had no idea those booking were planning to hold a party and was only aware of it when he was called by police in the middle of the night.

He said he spent £1,000 to get the property back to a liveable standard.

He said: ‘The damage was visually really bad. It cost me about £1,000 of deep cleaning, cleaning carpets and repainting walls.

‘There was a lot of drug paraphernalia, hundreds of laughing gas canisters all over the place.

‘I remember I woke up at about 2am and I never normally check my phone but I did and I had 25 missed calls from a Bournemouth number, they rang again and said it was Dorset Police and was I throwing a party at my address.

‘When I got there it looked like the whole of Dorset armed police were there.

‘I think with an area like Sandbanks, the fact they were all from the London area, mainly male and dressed and looked a certain way, I think it was quite intimidating for people.

‘It has definitely put me off using Airbnb. Now I’ve changed my sales text, it makes it very clear parties are not permitted – ‘don’t come if you are having a party, if you are planning one cancel your booking’.

‘That is the last party that was held at the house and we have not had any trouble since then thankfully.’

Airbnb introduced a temporary ban on parties in August 2020 when people ‘took partying behaviour to rented homes’ due to bars and nightclubs being closed or restricted in the Covid pandemic.

The accommodation company made the ban on ‘disruptive parties’ permanent last year after positive feedback and a large reduction in complaints about parties.

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