Pressure was growing today for a councillor to step down after he was convicted for illegally converting a family house into flats.

Councillor Jiwan Virk repeatedly ignored requests by council officers to reverse the changes he had made, including adding a porch extension, without planning permission.

It led to the Labour councillor for Bedfont appearing before Feltham Magistrates’ Court on Monday where he was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine and £2,958 costs.

Councillor Mark Bowen, deputy leader of Hounslow Council, said: “If Labour have got any commitment whatsoever to high standards in public life they should expel him from the Labour Group.

“As for Councillor Virk, I think he should as a minimum agree never to participate in planning decisions again. He would recover some dignity to stand down as a councillor and call a byelection.

“I think he is both shaming himself and his party, and I think residents in this borough will be disgusted.”

Coun Virk said he was “upset” by the prosecution and had no plans to step down, accusing Coun Bowen of pursuing the case against him.

The landlord, of Basildene Road, Hounslow, said: “Mark Bowen is the deputy leader, and as deputy leader he is instigating the legal department to do these things.”

He said he had complied with an enforcement notice almost a month before he was issued with a court summons in February this year, adding he could not do it before because he needed to evict a young family living at the property.

But magistrates ruled Coun Virk had not done all he could be reasonably expected to do in order to comply with the notice, which was issued in July last year.

The council had first contacted him in June 2005 to arrange to inspect the property after an earlier visit found it had been converted into two residential units.

Councillor Jagdish Sharma, leader of the Labour Group, said that Coun Virk’s punishment would be decided at a group meeting.

He said: “For any member not to follow the rules and regulations of the council deserves punishment, so in my view he will be punished for that.

“I will give my views very forcefully in the group meeting, but ultimately it’s not in my hands.”