A Bradford landlord has been given community service after repeatedly failing to produce a gas safety record for a property occupied by a mother and her two children.

Khalid Khan ignored warnings from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and Bradford Council to provide proof that an annual safety check on the gas appliances had been carried out at the house in Heaton.

Khan, of Allerton Road, pleaded not guilty to gas safety breaches at Bradford Magistrates’ Court on 2 January, despite being contacted several times between November 2009 and April 2011 asking him to produce a landlord’s gas safety certificate.

He also left the tenant and her two children, both under age ten, without hot water and heating for several months.

Bradford Council alerted HSE and replaced the tenant’s faulty boiler.

Khan, was found guilty of breaching the Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998 and failing to comply with the HSE’s Improvement Notice.

Magistrates ordered him to undertake 200 hours of unpaid community service over 12 months and to pay £1,500 toward prosecution costs.

HSE inspector Rachel Brittain said: "This type of offence is still regrettably far too prevalent among private landlords and, in this case, a woman and her two children were left without hot water and heating for long periods. Even today, the tenant’s gas fire is not working and she is using her own gas heater.

"Landlords have responsibilities to ensure that the gas appliances in their rented properties are properly maintained and that they are checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer every 12 months.

"Landlords who refuse to take this duty of care seriously place their tenants potentially at risk of injury or even death. HSE will not hesitate to prosecute those who choose to ignore their responsibilities in this way."

For information and advice on the duties of landlords and other aspects of gas safety and regulation, visit www.hse.gov.uk/gas/landlords