Landlord fined over £15,000 for fire safety breaches
A Salford landlord has pleaded guilty to breaching fire safety regulations.
Raviv Dozetas, pleaded guilty to five breaches of the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 and to one offence under the Housing Act 2004 in a prosecution by Bolton Council. He was convicted at Bolton Magistrates’ Court on 18th May 2012.
The conviction follows an investigation carried out by Bolton Council officers on 6th October 2011, at a four storey block of flats in Bolton.
It was found that the fire alarm wasn’t working properly, smoke detectors in the flats had been covered up with blanking caps, self-closing fire doors and emergency lighting were not working and there was no firefighting equipment anywhere in the building.
Dozetas admitted that he was responsible for the premises and had not carried out a Fire Risk Assessment.
Dozetas was fined £3,500 for not carrying out a fire risk assessment and for failing to provide an adequate fire alarm and £1,000 each for the other offences. He was also ordered to pay the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service £3,285.75 in costs.
He was also fined £1,000 for renting out the property without a licence and £1000 in costs to Bolton Council.
Peter O’Reilly from GMFRS said: “There were nine flats in the building and Mr Dozetas profited from the rent whilst putting the tenants at risk. A private landlord should ensure that their flats are safe and this case highlights how GMFRS works closely with our partners to ensure the residents of Greater Manchester are safe. Prohibiting a building is a serious step particularly when it means people have to leave their homes, however Mr Dozetas’ disregard for the safety of his tenants left us with no choice until he put matters right.”
Nick Peel, Bolton Council’s Executive Cabinet Member for Regulatory Services said: “This successful joint prosecution sends out a message that the council and its partners will seek to take the strongest action against landlords who fail to maintain a safe home for their tenants. Our housing and public health team actively pursue those landlords who fail to license properties that meet the relevant criteria. We would like to remind landlords, of privately rented properties, that they should visit and check their properties on a regular basis and ensure that they are safe and free from serious hazards.”
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.
Prison sentence for Italian CEO after fatal fire
The chief executive officer at Italian firm ThyssenKrupp has been sentenced to almost 17 years in prison after 7 employees died in a fire in 2007 at one of the company’s plants.
The company was fined nearly £900,000 for the serious fire safety breaches.
Other senior officials at the company, Marco Pucci, Gerald Pregnitz, Giuseppe Salerno and Cosimo Cafueri were all sentenced to 13 and a half years in jail, and Daniele Moroni was given just under 11 years.
Prosecutor, Raffaele Guariniello said that the verdict would “mean a lot for health and safety at the workplace”.