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.’