Fire Safety - Highest Penalty £200,000!

The owner of the Radnor Hotel in Bayswater was sentenced this month at the Old Bailey for seven breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

The premises had been subject to inspections by London Fire Brigade since 2011 and works required under an enforcement notice had not been undertaken. Judge Kennedy during sentencing stated that the public expected “absolute attention” to Fire Safety when staying in a hotel and that as the owner, the “buck stopped” with Salim Patel. The £200,000 fine is the largest penalty to an individual in London, in addition to which there was a 4 month jail term suspended for 18 months and an Order to pay costs of £29,922. 

London Fire Brigade, Head of Fire Safety Regulation confirmed that the fine “should send a message to all business owners that if they are shrinking their Fire Safety responsibilities and putting the public at risk, we will not hesitate to prosecute”.