Owner of Wolverhampton deathtrap Fox Hotel to pay £19,000
A businessman, who let his city centre hotel become a potential deathtrap because he put profits before the safety of guests, has been been ordered to pay £19,000.
Parmjit Kalirai also received a prison sentence suspended for two years after admitting a "potentially life threatening catalogue of fire safety failures" at the former Fox Hotel in Wolverhampton, a court heard.
Prosecutor Mark Jackson told Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday: "This hotel was riddled with breaches of fire safety because profit was put before safety."
Recorder Richard Bond said: "There was an element of greed. This was not the most popular hotel in Wolverhampton and it would have cost the defendant money to comply with the legislation but, by not complying, he put financial gain over the maintenance of the proper safety standards."
Overnight stays at the 33-bedroom Fox Hotel were immediately banned after fire safety experts saw the state of the building during a spot check in May, 2009.
Emergency escape routes were blocked by "combustible materials" such as plywood and curtains.
A key fire door to the boiler room was propped open by a brick, meaning smoke and flames could sweep unchecked into supposed escape routes.
Fire exit signs were missing, the fire alarm did not work properly and a blind eye had been turned to dangerous faults in the emergency lighting, the court was told.
The faults were the responsibility of 66-year-old Kalirai from Showell Lane, Lower Penn. He admitted breaking 23 fire safety rules, some of which put employees and members of the public "at risk of death or serious injury in case of fire."
Kalirai was given an eight-month sentence suspended for two years, and was ordered to pay £19,060 costs. The Fox Hotel closed in October 2011 and was bulldozed in April last year.
