A landlord has been fined £11,000 after being prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at Plymouth Magistrates Court following an investigation into a dangerous gas boiler installed in his property.

Abdul Manik, 54, owned a number of flats at the property at Meadfoot Terrace, Plymouth but didn’t have gas safety certificates for any of them. 

The council asked him to provide certificates on at least seven separate occasions – but he ignored the requests.

HSE served an Improvement Notice on Manik, requiring him to undertake landlords’ gas safety check and maintenance, but this had not been done by the notice expiry date.

In December 2014, a gas engineer called in by one of the tenants at the flats found serious problems with the gas boiler at the flat and notified HSE. The gas boiler was classified by the Gas Safe registered engineer as ‘immediately dangerous’, meaning if operated or left connected to the gas supply it could cause an immediate danger to life or property. 

The boiler was replaced by Plymouth City Council after Manik failed to undertake the necessary repairs.

Manik of Lockington Avenue, Plymouth pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulations 36(2) and 36(3) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and Section 33(g) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was fined £11,000 and ordered to pay costs of £880.

HSE Inspector, Simon Jones, speaking after the hearing, said: “Landlords have a legal duty to carry out gas safety checks and maintenance which are there to protect their tenants from death or injury.

“In this case, Mr Manik ignored repeated requests to carry out the checks and as a result, a serious fault with the gas boiler at one of the flats undetected until discovered by an engineer.”