A Blackburn landlord has been fined after she ignored repeated warnings about arranging an annual gas safety check at a property with five gas appliances.

A Blackburn landlord has been fined after she ignored repeated warnings about arranging an annual gas safety check at a property with five gas appliances.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council made numerous attempts to contact Samera Hussain between October 2012 and April 2013, but she failed to provide proof of a gas safety record for a property on Cumberland Street.

Blackburn Magistrates’ Court heard on 16 May that a tenant had lived in the house for nearly two years but a gas engineer only visited the property to carry out a safety check just before she moved out in June 2013.

The gas boiler and four gas fires should, under UK law, have been checked annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

Following multiple letters and a visit to the property where one of Mrs Hussain’s relatives lived, HSE issued an Improvement Notice on 30 April 2013 giving her 26 days to arrange a gas safety check, which she failed to do.

Mrs Hussain pleaded guilty to single breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, was fined £260 and ordered to pay £207 in prosecution costs.

HSE inspector Richard Clarke said: “Mrs Hussain potentially put her tenant’s life at risk by failing to arrange a gas safety check for nearly two years. We gave her several chances to organise an inspection, but she ignored all of these. As a result, we had no choice but to take legal action against her.

“Dozens of people are killed or badly harmed every year from carbon monoxide poisoning so it is vital that landlords take the risks seriously. We will continue to prosecute landlords who think the law doesn’t apply to them.”