A Trowbridge takeaway owner has been told to pay over £6,700 by magistrates after admitting seven charges relating to fire safety failings.
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On 14 October 2011, at North Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court, Mr Kenan Olmez was successfully prosecuted by Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service for numerous failings under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
In February 2009, officers from Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service’s technical fire safety department carried out an inspection of Best Favourite Chicken & Rib in Market Street, Trowbridge, as a result of concerns raised by Wiltshire Council’s environmental health officers.
During the inspection, a number of serious fire safety failings were found which put an employee and customers at risk, had there been a fire. The officers served a prohibition notice, preventing the premises from being used for sleeping accommodation. They also served an enforcement notice, requiring improvements in the fire safety measures and management of the business, for which Mr Olmez is the proprietor.
After numerous visits over the next year, including an inspection after a small fire in November 2009, it became clear that Mr Olmez was not complying with either the enforcement notice or the prohibition notice. In fact, new fire safety failings were discovered since the original inspection.
In court on Friday, Mr Olmez pleaded guilty to seven charges:
- Failure to undertake a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment;
- Storage of combustible materials and obstructions on the means of escape;
- A final fire exit was not easily and immediately available as it was locked with a key;
- A fire door between the kitchen and the means of escape was wedged open, missing the self-closing device, missing the door jamb and missing the smoke strips and intumescent seals;
- An internal fire door on an escape route was found to be locked with a key;
- A fire door on the first Floor was found to be wedged open; and
- The prohibition notice was not being complied with.
Mr Olmez was fined £1,100 for each offence, although this was reduced to £742 for each offence in recognition of an early guilty plea. He was also ordered to pay £1,500 towards the Fire Authority’s costs and a £15 victims’ surcharge.
In their summing up, the Magistrates stated that Mr Olmez “had plenty of time to comply but had demonstrated a reluctance to engage with professional advice…and had been seriously neglectful to his employee and his customers. Not even the fire in November 2009 had brought about change.”
Group Manager Julian Parsons, from Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service, said: “It is unusual for Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service to have to undertake a prosecution and we only do so when we believe that the fire safety failings are so serious that it is in the public interest to do so. This is the result of two years’ hard work by our officers in what has proven to be a difficult and complex case to investigate. We have become increasingly concerned about the safety of living accommodation associated with pubs, clubs and restaurants and takeaways, and we are working very hard with partner agencies to educate businesses to improve fire safety in these types of premises. I think the level of fines levied and concerns expressed by the Magistrates sends a clear message about how serious these failings are and how they put persons unnecessarily at risk from a fire.”
