Flats firm fined £60k after 'putting lives at risk'

These blocks of flats in Wolsey Street, Ipswich, were found to present a risk to tenants

A property firm and its director have been ordered to pay tens of thousands of pounds after being found to have put the lives of their tenants at risk.

Home from Home Property Management Ltd and Edward Ottley, the company's director, were sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court in Suffolk, after failing to comply with fire safety legislations.

The business was fined £60,000 while Ottley was handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to perform 120 hours of unpaid work.

Prosecution costs totalling £49,500 were also awarded to Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), which will be divided equally between Ottley and the company.

A spokesperson for SFRS said: “This sentence reflects the severity of the potential risk to residents from Home from Home’s actions had a fire occurred.

“The inadequate fire safety measures and management in this case could have resulted in serious injury or loss of life.

“We hope this will send a clear message to all managing agents of the importance of fire safety and will not hesitate in prosecuting where lives are placed at risk.”

The conviction comes seven years after Suffolk Fire Service found blocks of flats in Wolsey Street, Ipswich, to be cladded with aluminium composite.

The material is similar to that used in the Grenfell Tower flats in London, which caught fire in June 2017 and 72 people lost their lives.

Home from Home Property Management  Ltd and Edward Ottley were sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court

According to the fire service, a fire risk assessment of the building in Ipswich had been undertaken, but failed to take into account the high fire risk posed to residents of the flats near Cardinal Park.

Home from Home had commissioned a fire risk assessor but gave them inaccurate information regarding the level of risk posed by the building, the fire service said.

When this became apparent, the risk assessor invalidated the fire risk assessment it had produced.

Then, in 2019, fire service officers attended the flats and identified the fire risk assessment had not been reviewed nor updated.

The visit also raised concerns over whether residents would be able to exit safely in the event of a fire, before a new fire risk assessor corroborated the findings of the fire service.

Ottley, of Tuddenham, Suffolk, and the firm, based in Pownall Road, Ipswich, were found guilty in June following an Ipswich Crown Court trial heard at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

They faced and were subsequently convicted of a total of eight charges of non-compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

Steve Wiles, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for public protection, said: “The safety and wellbeing of the public is paramount.

“When the actions of companies such as Home from Home undermine that it is only right that they are held to account.”