A buy-to-let landlord has been given a suspended prison sentence, instructed to undertake community service and ordered to pay almost £6,500 after pleading guilty to breaches of gas safety.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates’ Court heard that following a complaint from a tenant, an Improvement Notice was issued to landlord David Corry by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to present a Landlords Gas Safety Record.

But despite serving Corry with an Improvement Notice requiring him to arrange for a registered gas fitter to carry out an inspection of the gas appliances in one of his tenanted premises in Stafford, and to produce a Landlords Gas Safety Record, the landlord failed to comply. 

Corry of Springfield Drive, Stafford, was sentenced to serve a total of 36 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 140 hours unpaid work, after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 36(3) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and Section 21 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. He was also ordered to pay costs of £6,428.46.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Wayne Owen said: “David Corry potentially put the health of his tenants at risk and also chose to ignore the repeated requests by the HSE to produce the gas safety record.

“Every year around seven people die from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by gas appliances and flues that have not been properly installed, maintained or that are poorly ventilated. It is important that landlords fulfil their legal gas safety obligations to their tenants.”