A Staffordshire man has been fined following an incident in which tenants at his properties were overcome by gas fumes.
Paul Bird, from Tamworth, has been fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £2,200 in costs at Burton-on-Trent magistrates court after pleading guilty to four charges under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
The incident occurred in December last year, when four people in a house rented from Mr Bird were overcome by fumes from gas appliances and admitted to hospital with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning.
Subsequent inspections found that the back boiler, gas flue and gas fire were dangerous and had not been subject to landlord safety checks for a number of years, which illustrates the need for liability insurance.
In related news, Kevin Hall, from Cannock in Staffordshire, was recently sentenced to 84 days in jail at Cannock magistrates court after breaching two counts of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 by carrying out gas work in contravention of a prohibition notice.