Commercial landlord fined £3,800 for not complying with Fire Service

Last month Wednesday May 19 Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service were successful in the prosecution of a Newcastle-based landlord, who failed to comply with Fire Service officers.

Mr Balal Ali of Callerton Place in Newcastle, who is a commercial landlord, was prosecuted in his absence at South Tyneside Magistrates; where he was found guilty of two counts of non-compliance with Article 27 of the Fire Safety Order; and ordered to pay £3,800 in charges.

The case commenced back in May 2019, when a visit by Operational Crews to a business premises flagged up a host of fire safety concerns, which in turn instigated a referral to the Fire Safety team.

Fire Safety Officers found insufficient fire resisting separation throughout the premises; it was also identified that the fire alarm was defective. Fire Safety Officers served the business with a prohibition notice restricting the use of some of the premises in question, as the inspection identified fears of imminent risk of death or injury.

The landlord, Mr Balal Ali, failed to cooperate with Fire Safety Officers in their duties, preventing them from ensuring safety measures were implemented quickly within the business, and affecting public safety.

Richie Rickaby, Area Manager for Community Safety at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, said:

“The Fire Service sees prosecuting business owners and taking them to court as a last resort.  But we have a public duty to those proprietors, their staff and customers to ensure premises are safe and fit for purpose.

“We are always willing to work with businesses as our number one priority is to maintain public safety. But we need to hit home the crucial message that it’s an offence for business owners to deliberately refuse to cooperate with Fire Safety Inspectors, or look to hamper them in their duties.

“In this case it shows our levels of determination and commitment to the cause as we pursued the incident for over two years and were successful with the outcome.  We hope this result is an eye opener for other business owners in the region.”

For further information about the work of Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service please visit www.twfire.gov.uk