HMO Landlords Pick up £28,000 Bill for Flouting Fire Safety

HMO Landlords Pick up £28,000 Bill for Flouting Fire Safety

15:58 PM, 30th September 2011, About 13 years ago

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"A round up of rogue landlords in court and their fines"

Two landlords who put tenant lives at risk by flouting fire safety rules were ordered to pay fines and costs of almost £28,000.

The pair – Fiaz Mahmmud, 48, and Audrey Feegrado, 39, of Daffodil Close, Hatfield, Hertfordshire – denied seven charges relating to the management of a house in multiple occupation (HMO) at Watford Magistrates Court.

The court was told that their failings as managers could have led to lethal consequences for their student and young professional tenants.

Hatfield Council officers who inspected the six-bedroom house on French Horn Lane in Hatfield last year said Mahmmud and Feegrado did not clear fire escape routes or make sure fire safety equipment was in good working order.

They were also accused of poor standards of cleanliness by not keeping the shared areas of the house clean and tidy.

The pair pleaded denied all seven charges, but were found guilty on five counts.

Each was ordered to pay fines and costs of £13,765.

The prosecution was the first HMO case brought by the council.

Council chief executive Michel Saminaden said: “It lays the foundation for a number of future projects that the council is working on to improve the quality of private sector housing within the borough.

“These severe fire safety breaches could have resulted in fatalities.”

Boxing coach must pay £95,000 or go to jail

Boxing coach Daniel Vaughan faces a longer jail term if he cannot repay cash he pocketed from a benefits scam.

Vaughan, 40, of Liverpool, was jailed for 10 months earlier this year for the fraud in which his former girlfriend, Natalie Dickman, claimed benefits while claiming he was her landlord without revealing they lived together.

A judge at Liverpool Crown Court has found he benefitted by £125,000 from the con and must repay £84,000 back in two years or face a further 24 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay £11,867 costs.


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