Hotel bosses fined £40,000 over fire safety breaches

THE company which owns Hylands Hotel in Cheylesmore has been fined £40,000 after shocking breaches of health and safety laws put the lives of its guests at risk.

Cumberland Court Ltd was ordered to pay £22,000 in fines and £18,071 in costs after bosses admitted nine breaches of fire safety regulations last month.

Director Karim Moloo, 37, of Kenton Hill in Middlesex, who admitted four charges of failing to take general fire precautions and failing to comply with an enforcement notice, was sentenced to two months in prison suspended for two years.

We reported last month how the Warwick Road hotel repeatedly broke the law in spite of warnings and notices issued by West Midlands Fire Service.

The fire alarm system was found not to be working on all levels of the building and fire exits were found to be poorly maintained, blocked and even locked.

Investigations had originally started following a complaint from a guest who was concerned about poor standards of fire safety.

The hotel was being run for Middlesex-based Cumberland Court Ltd by a third party at the time concerns were first raised, Warwick Crown Court had previously heard.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said: “I take into account that the defendants did take steps to remedy the deficiencies, but they were not undertaken with the urgency they should have been.

"There was a failure to prioritise fire safety measures.”

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