What happened
In July 2018 two private housing officers from City of Lincoln Council attended a property on Union Road in Lincoln. The visit was a routine check on whether the landlord’s house was safe to license as a house in multiple occupation under the Housing Act 2004.
The landlord, Brian Goodwin, had been given notice of the visit and had agreed to it. When the officers arrived he told them to get out.
He then took one of the officers from behind in an unannounced hold, lifted him off the ground and heaved him down the stairs. The officer’s elbow struck the wall on the way down. He was left with grazes and abdominal bruising that needed a hospital check. The inspection was not completed.
The outcome
City of Lincoln Council prosecuted Goodwin as agent for the Crown Prosecution Service, after a police investigation. He was found guilty after a trial on 6 June 2019 of assault, and of obstructing the inspection without reasonable excuse. He was fined more than £1,600, with £50 compensation to the officer he had assaulted.
The magistrates increased the fine because, as the council’s environmental health manager put it, his actions were directed at council representatives doing their duty.
What went wrong
The visit had a lawful basis and a landlord who had said yes, which is what made it feel safe. Two officers attended, so this was not a lone visit in the ordinary sense. What failed was the plan for refusal.
Nothing in the reporting shows that anyone had asked what would happen if Goodwin changed his mind at the door. The attack came from behind, without warning, on a stairwell. That is the worst place in a building to be taken hold of: the exit is behind you and the ground is not where you expect it.
What it teaches
Consent to enter is not consent to stay. An inspection that a landlord has agreed to is still an encounter that can turn at the threshold, and the professional manner that gets an officer through the door is not a plan for getting back out of it.
For enforcement visits the controls are dull and they work. Two people where possible, which was the case here and still did not prevent an injury. Someone who knows the expected finish time and acts when it passes. An exit kept clear, and the habit of not standing with the stairs at your back.
On a landing or a stairwell, where you stand matters more than anything you say. Keep the way out in front of you, and do not let a conversation drift you into a corner.
Questions for the room
- When did you last plan an enforcement visit as if it might be refused, rather than as if it might be awkward?
- Who had your name, the address and the time you expected to finish, and when would they have acted on it?
- Two officers were there and it still happened. What does a second person add, and what does it not?
Evidence and limits
Confidence: confirmed. Two independent reports were read: the Doncaster Free Press of 12 June 2019 and Landlord Today of 13 June 2019, both drawn from the same court reporting and council statement.
The pack and those reports place the property in Lincoln, with City of Lincoln Council prosecuting, while the vault record gives the location as Doncaster. This page follows the reporting.
The reporting does not say whether the visit was planned as a single-officer visit or as a pair. It names two officers present, and the page says no more.
Our lone working training covers the plan for a visit that is refused, and the exits that have to be checked before you go in.
Sources
Reviewed 20 October 2026.