Wandsworth Council has backed down over its plans to evict the mother of jailed looter Daniel Sartain-Clarke.

Maite de la Calva, from Chichester Way, Battersea, has been facing the threat of eviction from her council flat after her son was jailed this month for looting from Curry's in Clapham Junction in August.

But following a meeting with council officials today, Ms de la Calva and her legal team, from human rights charity Liberty, were told the council were not going to force her and her young daughter out.

Liberty lawyer Emma Norton, who represented Ms de la Calva, described the local authority as "heartless" and "bullies".

She said: "Wandsworth Council has finally seen sense and we’re delighted Maite and her daughter aren’t facing a future without a roof over their heads.

“But the appalling and heartless way the authority threatened this innocent family with eviction in the first place still beggars belief.

“Regardless of wealth, everyone is equal before the law and we’d urge any tenants subjected to such bullying by other authorities to contact Liberty.”

In the days after the August's riots, the council hit the national headlines when it became the first council in the country to threaten to evict a household if a family member was convicted of looting within the borough of Wandsworth.

Council leader, Councillor Ravi Govindia said he wanted the "strongest possible action" taken against rioters and looters.

He told the Daily Mail: "This council will do its utmost to ensure that those who are responsible pay a proper price. Ultimately this could lead to eviction from their homes.

"Our officers will continue to work with the courts to establish the identities of other council tenants or members of their households as more cases are processed in the coming days and weeks.

"Most residents on our housing estates are decent law-abiding citizens who will have been sickened at the scenes they witnessed on their TV screens this week.

"As much as anything else we owe it to them to send out a strong signal that this kind of violence will not be tolerated."

Sartain-Clarke had moved out of his mother’s property earlier in 2011 but Ms de la Calva was still served with a Notice of Seeking Possession stating she was likely to have breached her tenancy agreement as a result of his actions.

The authority vowed to apply for an order of possession, evicting the innocent Ms de la Calva and her daughter, if her son was convicted.

The threat came despite Ms de la Calva’s contribution to her local area over the last five years.

She is described as a credit to her housing estate by neighbours and spends her limited spare time volunteering for a youth charity and working with domestic violence victims.

Labour councillor Tony Belton, who supported the family through their ordeal, said: “I am delighted that Maite has had the report withdrawn from her. I am still annoyed that the council felt it necessary to put the family and mother through five months of stress.

In a text message to Coun Belton this afternoon Ms de la Calva wrote: “Great news not going to be evicted. Can’t express the relief and the great pressure it has been on me.”

A Liberty spokesman: "Liberty agreed to represent her and fight any cynical attempt by council to punish her and her daughter for her son’s conviction.

"Ms de la Calva has committed no crime herself and would not have faced such a threat had she lived in a mortgaged house.

"Other authorities have since opted to follow Wandsworth’s example by using tenancy agreements and housing legislation to bully other vulnerable residents."