HSE fines Accrington landlord for gas safety failings
A private landlord has been ordered to pay nearly £60,000 in fines and costs after he ignored repeated warnings about arranging an annual gas safety check at a house in the town.
Tariq Ali was given numerous opportunities by the Health & Safety Executive to arrange an inspection for a property on Persia Street after the previous gas safety record expired in October 2012.
Landlords are required by law to have gas appliances checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer at least once a year, but Ali failed to do this.
Trafford Magistrates' Court heard that he first came to the attention of the Gas Safe Register, the official body for gas engineers, in 2011 after gas appliances at several of his properties were classified as being "at risk" or "immediately dangerous".
Ali was served with an improvement notice relating to the property on Persia Street on 12 September 2013, giving him one month to arrange an annual gas safety check. However, he failed to meet the deadline.
Tariq Ali, of Knotwood Court, Accrington, was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay £18,054 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to single breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 on 4 September 2014.
Stuart Kitchingman, HSE Inspector, said: "Ali put his tenants' lives at risk for financial gain by failing to arrange a gas safety check for nearly two years. We gave him several chances to organise an inspection, but he ignored all of these – including a formal improvement notice. We therefore had no choice but to take legal action.
"Dozens of people are killed or badly harmed every year from carbon monoxide poisoning so it is vital that landlords take the risks seriously. We will continue to prosecute landlords who think the law doesn't apply to them."
