Failed to maintain satisfactory fire maintenance

Stapley Care Home in Liverpool has been ordered to pay a fine for a range of fire safety offences that put staff and residents at risk of serious injury or death.

Liverpool Magistrates Court found the home guilty of five breaches of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, after an inspection from April 26 2018.

Brian Massie, senior fire protection officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS), said, “This is a care home with approximately 70 residents, some suffering dementia and needing significant support.

“From 2011 onwards, several inspections of the premises have been conducted and it is clear Stapely Care Home were aware of their duties under the fire safety order.”

The 2018 inspection found the care home had failed to maintain satisfactory fire separation in the cupboard ceilings, corridor walls, ground floor store room and basement or provide appropriate fire detectors and alarms.

Combustible materials had not been removed and the fire door was noted as inadequate, missing the appropriate safety strips and seals.

It was suggested that a fire could have spread very quickly due to insufficient means of raising an alarm, of preventing the spread of smoke and fire and of evacuating residents in need of significant help.

Those in charge were also accused of failing to ensure the premises were subject to a suitable system of maintenance.

Despite District Judge Shaw acknowledging the severity of the offences and ‘risk of harm including death’, as the care home is run by charitable organisations and, due to concerns about a very large fine having a detrimental impact on service users, the fine was set at £6,000.

Following on from this case, MFRS will be conducting a fire safety campaign targeting all care homes across Merseyside.

Original Source 
Liverpool Echo

‘Critical’ fire safety requirements ignore

Mohammed Saleem, a builder from Bedford, has pleaded guilty at Luton Magistrates Court for breaching regulations and not complying with critical fire safety requirements.

The court ordered Mohammad to pay legal costs totalling £13,700 for the breaches on the office space he was converting into flats.

Councillor Colleen Atkins, portfolio holder for community safety and regulatory services at Bedford Borough Council, said: “This conviction confirms the seriousness with which we take failure to comply with building regulations.

“Building regulations set standards for the design and construction of buildings to ensure the safety and health for people in or about those buildings.

“The council will continue to take action against people undertaking unauthorised work or sub-standard work in the borough which poses a risk to occupants and the public.”

Original Source
Bedford Today

Placed people at risk of serious injury or death

The boss of The Crown Hotel in Burnley, has pleaded guilty to a string of offences after the hotel was shut down in 2017.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service carried out an inspection in 2017 and found a range of problems, which varied from a lack of fire detectors and alarms to missing smoke sensors and combustible materials being left on fire escape routes.

The general maintenance and repair of fire alarm systems were also brought into question during the inspection.

Crown Hotel (Stone) Ltd was trialed at Burnley Crown Court, where evidence also emerged that a sufficient fire risk assessment had not been compiled and adequate fire doors had not been provided.

Salim pleaded guilty to six fire safety offences, all of which were said to place people at risk of serious injury or death but entered not guilty pleas to several other fire safety planning charges.

The hotel was also found guilty of failing to take general fire precautions as were reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of employees in case of fire.

Judge Andrew Woolman bailed Salim until March 25.

Original Source
Lancashire Telegraph 

A rogue landlord has been fined for breaching a prohibition order 

Despite a prohibition order made in 2014 by Stevenage Borough Council, rogue landlord Nasif Botros continued to rent out a poorly converted attic room.

The attic was uninhabitable, according to the 2014 order, due to serious fire safety hazards and excess cold.

Despite the order, an inspection by environmental health officers in July 2018 confirmed an occupant was living in the space

Councillor Jeannette Thomas, SBC’s executive member for housing, said, “We will not tolerate the few landlords who provide substandard accommodation and have a disregard for the health and safety of tenants.

“The council will continue to use enforcement action such as prosecution, civil penalty notices, banning orders and rent repayment orders to deal with unscrupulous landlords.”

The inspection found that, while some changes had been made to update the fire safety of the room, the staircase was a serious fire hazard due to its excessive steepness, lack of handrails and missing guard at the top.

Under Section 32 of the Housing Act 2004, Mr Botros was prosecuted and fined over £1700. He did not attend the hearing at Luton Magistrates’ Court.

He will also have to pay more than £2500 in legal costs and a victim surcharge of £170.

Original Source
The Comet

Urgent review of emergency plans and fire risk assessment required

London Fire Brigade inspectors have discovered serious fire safety failures in care homes across the capital after visiting 177 institutions.

The Brigade’s assistant commissioner Dan Daly said, “Over half the care homes we inspected had to make improvements to their fire safety arrangements despite them housing some of London’s most vulnerable residents.

“My main concern is that this audit is only the tip of the iceberg. Care home owners need to urgently review their fire risk assessments and ensure their staff know how to safely evacuate residents, especially those who are immobile.”

Breaches included inadequate fire doors in a third of properties, widespread confusion about evacuation strategies, and fire risk assessments being carried out by people without proper skills and experience.

Inspectors found roofs were being omitted from risk assessments, which is a serious concern as roof voids often increase the severity of a fire.

The London Fire Brigade have now written to every care home in the capital, expressing their concern and demanding they urgently review fire safety.

Debbie Ivanova, the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) deputy chief inspector of adult social care for the London region, said, “I encourage all care home providers to make full use of these findings so they can make continual improvements that will help keep everyone safe.”

Read the Brigade’s care home audit report.

Original Source
London Fire Brigade

Claims properties were converted ‘without his knowledge’

Alfred de Gruchy, his company Continental Developments, and his daughter, Veronica Scott, were fined £28,000 and order to pay £5000 in court costs after being found guilty of operating two boarding houses without the correct fire certificates.

Mr de Gruchy, resident of the Island of Jersey, has a portfolio of 58 properties and the two cited in the case had been leased out as private single dwellings but had been converted to multiple-occupancy residences housing 12 people. They were found to be lacking even basic fire prevention measures.

Inspection of the first property by fire officers from Jersey Fire and Rescue revealed that it contained seven bedrooms and shared bathroom and kitchen facilities, arranged over three floors. All the bedrooms were padlocked and officers found unsafe electrical cables running through the house, wires carpet-taped and many electrical adaptors being used for three-pin sockets.

Officers also found ‘dangerous activity’ from fully loaded electrical extensions and a ground-floor cupboard filled with ‘combustible material’ including furniture, portable electric heaters and cardboard.

The second property contained five bedrooms with shared cooking and bathroom facilities over three floors. The bedrooms did not have fire doors, socket adaptors were again being used and two of the upper bedrooms had walls covered in flammable fibreboard.

Neither property had the fire certificate necessary for a house of multiple occupancy. Mr de Gruchy claimed that the properties had been converted without his knowledge.

Summing up and announcing the sentence of the court, Deputy Bailiff Tim Le Cocq said the breaches were serious, and ‘people could have been killed or injured’. He added that landlords should not take a ‘cavalier view’ of their obligations.

Original source

Jersey Evening Post

The staff at Bryland got in the mood, spreading some Christmas cheer throughout the office. Christmas jumpers…..Holly, Rudolph, and a massive dose of ‘Ho! ho! ho!’ from our office to yours! Season’s Greetings……

Ordered to pay more than £43,000 for 24 offences

Tenants who are vulnerable adults living in three houses of multiple occupation were living in unsafe premises, a court heard.

Telford agents, Salop Lets, pleaded guilty to 24 offences under the 2004 Housing Act and has been fined more than £43,000.

Broken and damaged fire doors and incomplete and missing certification for the fire alarms systems were among the defects at the properties.

The initial complaint was filed in February after an inspection from a fire safety officer from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.

After an improvement notice was served, changes were made that were still seen to be insufficient, such as a second-hand fire door.

Telford Magistrates Court heard that, since 2015, nearly £1.5 million of housing benefit had been paid in respect of properties managed by Salop Lets.

The overall fines were £31,500 and the company were also ordered to pay £11,462 costs and £170 surcharge.

Prosecuting barrister Sarah Morgan said, “Very little work was done during the operation of the improvement notices. I would draw your attention to the past history of the company and consider that they were cost-cutting with a view to profit.”

Sentencing the company, district judge Rebecca Crane said it had fallen far short of the housing standards expected and had ignored concerns raised by Telford & Wrekin Council, adding that there was a risk of death or life-changing injury from the company’s failure to maintain fire alarms and fire doors.

Original Source 
Shropshire Live 

£1.5 million penalty fine for a string of offences

A rogue landlord with convictions for significant fire safety failings has been fined £1.5million and could be imprisoned if he fails to pay.

Mr Sarkari from North London has been ordered to pay back the money he earned from dozens of tenants over several years who lived in the unsafe properties.

He faces nine years in prison if he fails to pay the penalty fines, which were accrued for a string of offences.

Judge Lana Wood, making the order at Harrow crown court, described the breaches as “a flagrant abuse” of planning law.

In 2008, he was fined £2800 for a number of fire safety offences and in December 2017 he was fined a further £13,400 for license breaches including fire safety and cockroach infestation.

Housing minister, Heather Wheeler, said, “We are committed to making sure people who are renting have good quality and well-maintained properties, and our rogue landlords database is just one of our policies for doing so, alongside banning orders, civil penalties and rent repayment orders.”

Mr Sarkari was on the London-wide rogue landlord database as a result of convictions from 2017 but wasn’t included on the national database as rules specify that only offences committed from April 2018 can be included.

His most recent offences were for illegally converting properties in Brent and Harrow into bedsits.

Cllr Keith Ferry, Harrow’s cabinet member for planning commented on the recent offences, “This is a man who thought he couldn’t be stopped. He was wrong and, thanks to our work with Brent council, Sarkari’s criminal venture is finished.”

Original Source
The Guardian