£30M PROPERTY FIRM ‘RUN LIKE CORNER SHOP’ PUT TENANTS’ LIVES AT RISK
LANDLORD FINED £80,000 FOR CATALOGUE OF FIRE SAFETY BREACHES
THE landlord of more than 70 flats in New Parks, Leicester, has been fined for a string of serious fire safety breaches that put tenants’ lives at risk.
Manjit Dulay, pictured, was said to be out of his depth and his business akin to a “multinational being run like a corner shop”.
A LANDLORD whose £30 million property empire was managed as if “a multinational being run like a corner shop” faces a bill of almost £150,000 for fire safety failings that put dozens of tenants’ lives at risk.
Manjit Dulay, who owns St Clement’s Court in Comet Close, New Parks, Leicester, which has more than 70 flats, was first warned by the fire service he needed to make urgent safety improvements in 2014.
Problems found during repeated inspections included a non-functioning fire alarm system, useless smoke detectors, unsuitable fire escape routes and a broken emergency air venting system.
Dulay failed to do all the work required and an enforcement notice was issued in April 2016.
Leicester Crown Court heard a more thorough assessment by firefighters in 2017 found recurring problems – and new ones.
After discovering not a single smoke detector in the corridors was functioning, the fire service officers, not wanting to force people out of their homes, fitted smoke detectors themselves.
Dulay finally hired an online company in 2017 to do a fire risk assessment for £400 but never informed it of the enforcement notice or the scale of problems.
It sent retired Leicestershire firefighter Martin Ballard, 60, of Rosslyn Road, Whitwick, who was unqualified for the job.
His work was so poor he was charged with four counts of breaching fire safety regulations himself and appeared in court alongside Dulay for sentencing.
Despite building two penthouses on the blocks without planning permission, Dulay failed to do the work required to meet fire safety requirements.
He pleaded guilty to six counts of risking people’s death or injury by breaching fire regulations.
Bernard Thorogood, prosecuting, said: “This was a building on occasion without fire alarm protection, which was a very serious situation.
“Each breach gave rise to the risk of death or serious injury.
“Fire is an indiscriminate killer. Fire and the products of combustion can spread very rapidly.”
He said the building had a serious lack of fire-resistant barriers – doors that did not fit their frames and others that should have been self-closing in the event of a fire - potentially allowing deadly fumes to fill the building quickly.
He said: “A corridor can quickly become completely filled (with smoke) so visibility is removed and a single breath can have terrible consequences.”
Mr Thorogood said that each day in the UK between 30 and 40 fires break out in residential blocks in the UK and that insecure front doors and anti-social behaviour problems around St Clement’s Court made the risk of fire greater.
He said: “There were repeated attempts by the fire service to help him raise standards.
“It was his choice to ignore regulatory requirements in the hope they would go away.”
As well as the regulation breaches, Dulay, of Pembrook Court, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, admitted failing to surrender to bail in February this year – he absconded for 130 days and then also missed a later appointment to sign in at a police station.
Lawrence Henderson, representing Dulay, said: “He’s no businessman – he’s a builder.
“He has taken on far more than he could manage. He’s trying to keep up with what he’s created.”
Judge Robert Brown told Mr Henderson: “You’re describing a multinational being run like a corner shop. He’s completely out of his depth.”
Judge Brown gave Dulay a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, and ordered him to pay an £80,000 fine plus £66,418 in costs.
The judge told Dulay: “You’re a builder, not a businessman. A radical new approach to compliance is now necessary.”
Mr Thorogood said fire safety at St Clement’s Court was now “much improved” but still “not quite where it should be”.