The landlord of the seemingly derelict New Kimberley Hotel in South Beach in Blackpool, Lancashire showed what the Crown Court described as a "callous disregard" for safety, having left tenants to live in "squalor" in the former hotel that had just one emergency exit.
Inside the 190-bed property investigators found four tenants, despite the building having no working fire alarm system, combustible materials close to the exit and other escape routes chained or nailed shut.
The hotel’s Landlord was sentenced to 18 months in prison for ignoring regulations that posed a “serious risk to life”. He had previously been found guilty of 15 offences relating to fire safety breaches. These included beds blocking fire escapes, gas cylinders by the only exit, a lack of emergency lighting, disconnected fire alarms and no working fire alarm system.
Officers from the Lancashire Fire and Rescue said they had never seen a building providing accommodation in such a poor state of disrepair and such poor fire safety standards.
