NEWS


Fines and prosecutions Landlord fined for multiple fire safety breaches


A COMPANY and director were fined after fire safety breaches were found at a property in Shepton Mallet. Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service (DSFRS) reported on the prosecution of The Dusthole Co Ltd and sole director Anthony Cockayne, after a 2016 inspection of The Kings Arms. The premises ‘advertises as a hotel, pub and restaurant’, and DSFRS officers found that the fire detection and warning system ‘fell far short of the standard expected in a premises providing sleeping accommodation’. In turn, on two separate


occasions, officers found that the fire detection and warning system were ‘inoperative as the fuse had been removed’, while escape routes serving sleeping accommodation ‘were not adequately protected by fire resisting construction’. An original staircase had been sealed, ‘removing an alternative escape route from the first floor’, and there was a lack of emergency escape lighting, alongside fire doors with self closers removed.


Because of the range of ‘serious


deficiencies’, DSFRS served a prohibition notice that prevented ‘use of the premises in respect of


THE THREE were jailed after ‘ignoring fire safety regulations’ at a shisha lounge in Birmingham, where a fire ‘almost killed’ residents upstairs. Birmingham Mail reported on


its sleeping accommodation until adequate fire safety measures were provided’. A subsequent DSFRS investigation revealed Mr Cockayne had ‘carried out several alterations’ including increasing the number of bedrooms, but had ‘failed to review the fire safety provisions and take account of the changes’. At Bristol Crown Court, The Dusthole Co Ltd was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 in costs after pleading guilty to four offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 [FSO]. Mr Cockayne was given an eight month sentence suspended for two


the prosecution of Waquas Rehman, Sulaman Rahid and Kazim Mashedi, after the lounge caught fire in an arson attack ‘in the early hours’ of Christmas Day 2013. Mr Mashedi was the main leaseholder, and sublet the lounge to Mr Rehman and Mr Rahid ‘while other parts were being used for sleeping accommodation when they should not have been’. Tenants Michael Atkinson and


Near fatal fire lands three men in jail with a wet blanket, before the floor collapsed ‘as they were perched on a ledge’, with both falling onto concrete below and suffering broken bones, cuts and bruises. Mr Atkinson and Miss Gordon


were ‘left trapped’ in a courtyard, before both were helped to escape. At Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Richard Bon stated that the ‘high risk premises’ included a wooden walkway that ‘should have been built from fire resistant material’ – an ‘accident waiting to happen’. In the part where the couple


Sherelle Gordon were asleep in a second floor bedsit, and were woken by ‘thick black smoke and flames’, which ‘started to come through the patio doors’. The two covered themselves and Mr Atkinson’s dog


lived ‘there were no smoke alarms or detectors’, and any attempt to install them had been ‘woefully ineffective’. Mr Atkinson’s 999 call was ‘harrowing’, Judge Bond adding that ‘they escaped death by seconds. This had a profound and lasting impact upon them’.


14 SEPTEMBER 2018 www.frmjournal.com


years, as well as being ordered to pay £2,000 in costs and a victim surcharge of £140. His Honour Judge Townsend


pointed out that ‘these are serious breaches’ of the FSO, adding that ‘there was a disregard (for fire safety) over a long period of time’, which was ‘therefore treated very seriously by the courts.’ He told Mr Cockayne that ‘no effort was made to apply the standards, and you must have realised this when you converted the bedrooms’. Paul Bray, business safety manager at DSFRS, commented: ‘It is important to stress that the vast majority of hotels and guest houses in Devon and Somerset comply with the necessary requirements of the FSO to ensure that their premises are safe. The service takes the safety of people that live, work and visit Devon and Somerset very seriously. ‘Where companies fail to carry out their duties and those failures put lives at risk, they will take all necessary action to ensure the matters are dealt with appropriately. The service only takes legal action in the courts where it identifies failures so serious that there has been a significant risk to people’s safety.’


Pointing out that the lounge


had been ‘packed with sofas which provided a ready source of fuel’, he commented that Mr Rehman and Mr Rahid had ‘put their desire to make money […] before the welfare and safety of others’, and had ‘done almost nothing in relation to fire safety’. Mr Mashedi – who had run other lounges – had ‘shown no remorse’, the judge said, describing him as an ‘arrogant and selfish man who simply cares about himself’. He sentenced Mr Mashedi to 18 months in jail after he had admitted six breaches of fire safety law, and the defendant was also ordered to pay £14,736 costs. Mr Rehman and Mr Rahid both pleaded guilty to five breaches of fire safety law, and were jailed for eight months, as well as being ordered to pay costs of £6,000 each


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