Fashion store owner fined over £8000 for fire safety breaches
The owner of a fashion store in Prestwich has been convicted of fire safety breaches after investigators visited the premises earlier this month.
The investigation found that escape routes were either locked or blocked, fire alarms and extinguishers were not properly maintained and staff had not been made aware of any fire evacuation procedures.
Joel Lever, who owns the Mon Amie Studios store, appeared at Bury Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to 7 offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. He was ordered to pay a total of £5,200 for two of the offences. He was also ordered to pay costs of £3,178 and £15 victim surcharge.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you:
‘must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed’
This means that all companies as a first point in their Fire Safety must complete a Fire Risk Assessment. This must be carried out by a competent person, who is trained to perform risk assessments. Your Fire Training needs, your fire extinguisher needs and any other fire safety related issues you will need to address will be highlighted from the Fire Risk Assessment.
Our team of experienced and qualified Fire Risk Assessors will perform a full Fire Risk Assessment of your premises, and provide you with a comprehensive document detailing the risks found and recommendations to minimise the risks.
Our Fire Risk Assessment is divided into nine separate areas:
- Fire safety administration
- Fire fighting facilities
- Identifying fire hazards
- Fire routine and test procedure
- Means of escape
- Review procedures
- Staff/people at risk
- Arson prevention check list
- Fire warning facilities
When you have a Fire Risk Assessment, you must review this to ensure that everything is still in order. For example, you have a reshuffle of departments and your trained Fire Wardens are all moved onto the same floor of the building so more are required to cover the other floors, or you may have an extension built on your building. You may not even have had any changes in personnel or building, but it is essential that you review the Fire Risk Assessment anyway! We provide a service to review your Fire Risk Assessments for you, whether completed by ourselves or not.
If you require a quotation for your business, please complete our Online Quotation below or call us now on 0845 0553 999 to discuss your requirements further.
Chinese restaurant manager fined for fire safety breaches
The manager of a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge has pleaded guilty to 16 fire safety breaches.
A visit from fire protection offers and environmental health officials revealed a range of health and safety breaches at the Tang Chinese Restaurant.
Investigators discovered that the loft of the premises had been converted into accommodation and was being used by staff. It had no fire exit, fire alarm system or emergency lighting.
Xueling Teng, pleaded guilty to the breaches when he appeared before Peterborough Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.
Only two days before the conviction, he had actually resigned as the manager of the restaurant.
Steve Cotton from Cambridge Fire and Rescue Service, said: “These breaches were putting lives at risk. This prosecution should serve as a message to other business owners that the Fire Safety Order cannot be ignored – it is there to save lives.”
Mr Teng was fined £2,000 for the breaches and ordered to pay £1,000 in costs.
Ex hotel owners to appear in court for fire safety breaches
The jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court took 55 minutes to find the former owners of the Connaught Hotel West Midlands Ltd guilty of 11 charges of failing to take sufficient fire precautions.
Jurors heard how the venue was a “death trap” hotel that put lives at risk with a “catalogue of failures”.
The breaches were discovered by investigators after a fire tore through the hotel in October 2007. These included the fire alarm not working, no smoke alarms or detectors in rooms, fire exits blocked and one fire door without a handle.
Investigators discovered that fire blankets were missing and fire exit routes were blocked. One fire alarm had been covered with a plastic bag.
The 87-bedroom hotel is now owned by another company.
Mr Jackson, prosecuting said many of the guests in the hotel at the time only knew something was wrong “when they heard people screaming and banging on doors to get out”. He told the jury the failures “turned the hotel into a death trap”.
He added: “The fact no-one died or was seriously injured in the fire was good fortune. All of the people staying there were at risk from this catalogue of failures and fire safety breaches. The photographs taken by the fire service speak for themselves.”
Sentence will be passed at Wolverhampton Crown Court on March 13.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you: ‘must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed’
This means that all companies as a first point in their Fire Safety must complete a Fire Risk Assessment. This must be carried out by a competent person, who is trained to perform risk assessments. Your Fire Training needs, your fire extinguisher needs and any other fire safety related issues you will need to address will be highlighted from the Fire Risk Assessment.
Norwich HMO landlord fined £20,000 for breaching fire safety regulations
The manager of a house in multiple occupation has been fined over £20,000 for breaching fire safety regulations.
53 year-old, Abdul Bashir was manager of the Prince of India restaurant on the ground floor and members of staff lived in the flats above. Mr Bashir pleaded guilty to the charges at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on Friday 28th October.
The breaches were discovered when an inspection was carried out by Norwich City Council on 9 February 2011. Investigators found that Mr Bashir had failed to provide adequate escape routes, fire doors and fire alarms.
Mr Bashir was fined £4,500 for each charge, totalling £18,000 and was also ordered to pay costs of £2,200.
Luke Parker at Norwich City Council, said: “These are serious breaches primarily relating to fire safety, which the council considers unacceptable. The prosecution was brought because he has a history of failing to maintain living conditions in a safe and proper manner at this property. He has been warned about conditions before but failed to improve and maintain the means of escape in case of fire. The aggravating factors are the number of occupants at risk from fire and living in poor conditions, and the length of time occupants were exposed to this risk.
Otis Hernandez, private sector housing officer for Norwich City Council, said: “The result sends out an important message to people that the council will take action against those whose negligence puts others at risk. That a fine so close to the maximum was handed out demonstrates the seriousness of these offences.”
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you: ‘must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed’
This means that all companies as a first point in their Fire Safety must complete a Fire Risk Assessment. This must be carried out by a competent person, who is trained to perform risk assessments. Your Fire Training needs, your fire extinguisher needs and any other fire safety related issues you will need to address will be highlighted from the Fire Risk Assessment.
Our team of experienced and qualified Fire Risk Assessors will perform a full Fire Risk Assessment of your premises, and provide you with a comprehensive document detailing the risks found and recommendations to minimise the risks.
Landlord jailed for death trap housing
A millionaire landlord and his son have been jailed for three months each after renting out death trap flats to vulnerable families.
Around 12 families paid Mr Fazal £100 per week to rent accommodation in an inner-city area of Manchester.
One flat that was occupied by a couple with a young child, had a first-floor landing littered with discarded furniture, mattresses, beds and electrical appliances. Inspectors found that bare electrical wires were hanging from the ceiling and the electrical wiring had been by-passed, no fire alarms had been installed and statutory fire risk assessments had not been carried out.
While renting out such horrendous accommodation, Fazal was living a life of luxury in his £1.3million house in a private cul-de-sac in Cheshire.
Fazal admitted six fire and safety offences and his son, Shahbaz, pleaded guilty to housing condition charges and fire and safety offences.
Judge Roger Thomas told them: ‘It’s wholly evident from the photographs and the description that the people who lived in those flats that they were living in squalor effectively. Having taken those flats you must have done very little indeed to make the accommodation habitable for the poor people who lived there and from whom you took weekly cash payments. The bigger thing that one can’t help but remark on is while you were trading in that way, you for your own personal comfort were living at the very opposite end of the housing spectrum. You were being treated to a very substantial home yet while you were living in the lap of luxury the people you were responsible for were living in slum conditions. No fire broke out and nobody was injured, but the risk was very real and your culpability is considerable.’
Manchester councillor Paul Andrews said: ‘It is absolutely shocking that a landlord in 21st-century Manchester is content to let a family live in this kind of squalor, when he is living content in Hale Barns surrounded by rich footballers. Slum landlords should be a thing of the past and I hope this serves as a warning to others who think they can rent out revolting properties and get away with it.’