Fines and prosecutions Suspended sentence and fine for ex councillor


VALI PATEL, a former county councillor in Preston, was fined after a fire in one of his properties led to a child being thrown from the window to safety. Lancashire Evening Post


reported on the prosecution of Mr Patel, who used to be in charge of education for Lancashire County Council as cabinet member for schools. His property in Fishwick, Preston, caught fire in April 2017, resulting from an electricity meter placed at the bottom of a communal stairway. This blocked residents’ ‘only exit and entry to their accommodation’, with three flats in the same building alongside a children’s nursery and a women’s centre. Tenant Aisha Gohar, who was at home with two year old daughter Fathima, made a ‘horrifying’ call to her husband Kashif saying that she was trapped inside their flat. He quickly travelled home and was ‘met by thick smoke pouring from their lounge window’, trying to


climb the wall to the first floor flat, before Aisha threw Fathima out of the window to him. She was then helped out by a neighbour and Kashif used a work ladder on top of a van to reach her. At Preston Crown Court, it was


revealed that the building had no fire risk assessment to ‘address’ the multiple uses of the property, ‘despite assurances by Patel to planning chiefs that there would be sufficient fire doors and adequate detectors’. Firefighters also later found, after tackling the fire, that fire alarms were not working, as ‘no power was supplied


to the system’. Electricity needed to be turned off for around 200 homes during the firefighting process. Mr Patel admitted failing to comply with fire regulations and ‘placing a person at risk of death or serious injury’, in relation to fire doors, locks on emergency doors, provision of emergency exit routes and ‘failing to ensure that the premises and facilities were subject to a suitable system of maintenance’. He was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay a £12,000 fine plus costs of £6,455 ‘within a month’. Kashif Gohar stated after the


sentencing: ‘I didn’t want him to go prison as he’s a nice person, but the sentence has to reflect that he has responsibilities. It’s not a small thing he can just neglect to save a few pounds here and there, it’s risking people’s lives. I hope it sends out a message to other landlords to check smoke alarms, as well as the tenants.’


York hotel prosecuted for fire safety failings


THE LAMB and Lion pub and hotel received enforcement and prohibition notices for fire safety failures. North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue


Service (NYFRS) reported on the prosecution of the company that was running the business at the time, Sloping Tactic Limited. The Grade II listed Lamb and Lion pub and hotel is in the ‘heart of the city of York and close to York Minster’, with NYFRS receiving an anonymous complaint in March 2017 stating that the fire alarm was not working. On visiting, a fire safety officer


found that the fire alarm system ‘had been condemned by the fire alarm servicing company some days before’, but despite this, rooms providing accommodation ‘were still being used’. The officer decided that the system


was ‘inadequate in the event of a fire’, and that ‘there was a risk that people would not be given adequate warning, and that even with a night watchman


As a consequence of these issues,


both a prohibition and enforcement notice were served to Sloping Tactic. NYFRS noted that here the


it could not be guaranteed that all residents would be safe’. Other areas of concern included


fire doors ‘which were held open’ as well as the ‘poor storage of combustible materials in a boiler cupboard and the basement area’. A fire risk assessment undertaken ‘had not identified all the problems’ despite the company in charge ‘being made aware of some of the matters which required attention’.


prohibition notice ‘informed the responsible person that they must not allow anyone to sleep in the building’, while the rear ground floor area ‘was also restricted from being used’. Sloping Tactic Limited was part of HRH, a trading group involved in hotels, pubs and apartments in the county and York, and this week pleaded guilty to three contraventions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, though its director Aimee Louise Barker ‘did not attend’. The company was fined £110,000


and ordered to pay £2,863 in costs with a surcharge of £170, totalling £113,033. The magistrate sentencing the company commented that ‘we feel the operator fell well short of the required standard […] deficiencies led to a significant period of time where people were subjected to an unacceptable level of risk’


www.frmjournal.com MARCH 2018 11


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