100 Fire Prosecutions Analysed

My blog now reads that I have reached a century of prosecutions under the RRO. I thought it would be interesting to mine the data attached to those first 100 cases.

Unfortunately, I was involved with only a handful of cases under the Fire Precautions Act, so I am not in a position to make comparisons with prosecutions under the previous legislation. Nevertheless, a survey of the cases provides some useful information and certainly provides a reasonable overview of the types of prosecutions brought and how the courts have dealt with them.

The first completed case was sentenced in May 2007, so the survey covers just more than six years. (The Order came into force on 1 October, 2006.) I have included only the first 100 prosecutions in the North West, covering Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria, and Cheshire.

Almost always guilty
For me, the most interesting fact is that I have conducted only three trials out of 100 cases. This means that only three defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges brought. All three were found guilty.

I would point out that five cases were withdrawn by the prosecuting authority prior to trial, but in two of those cases, guilty pleas had already been entered by another defendant in respect to the same premises. One case was withdrawn because the defendant company had changed its name and been wound up. Another withdrawn case involved alleged offences on the weekend of 30 September, 2006, the day before the order came into force. We couldn’t prove that relevant persons were affected on 1 October, 2006.

In two cases, the defendants disappeared. There are warrants without bail awaiting those defendants.

Well-prepared prosecutions
Accordingly, 92 percent of the defendants pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them. I strongly believe that the guilty pleas resulted from well-prepared prosecution files backed with substantial evidence against the defendants. What must be remembered here is that firemen are neither lawyers nor policeman.

Whilst many fire safety officers receive some legal training, prior to 2006, there was very little training provided in areas such as investigation and interviewing techniques, evidence, and legal procedure. Thus, the fire services and their fire safety officers should take full credit for satisfying the court and defence solicitors that the defendants were guilty beyond reasonable doubt through detailed and thorough case preparation.

Significantly, 28 percent of the cases involved houses in multiple occupation, and another 21 percent involved premises containing multiple occupation, including living accommodation. Accordingly, almost half the prosecutions have involved some form of domestic premises.

This is interesting, given the legal uncertainty surrounding the extent and application of the RRO to HMOs. My experience has been that county councils would much rather leave such breaches to the relevant fire service, rather than using their powers under the Housing Act.

The breakdown of the types of premises involved are as follows.

Charge types
The types of charges brought against defendants have also varied, but in 85 percent of the cases, the charges included an alleged breach involving fire risk assessments. Approximately 60 percent of cases involved the lack of a fire alarm or working fire alarm, and the next most common charge was a lack of appropriate fire doors.

The sentences handed out have also varied, with fines being the main punishment. (Magistrates’ sentencing powers are limited to fines.) However, there have been six sentences of imprisonment — four suspended sentences and two immediate custodial sentences. Courts have used Community Orders, such as Curfew Orders and unpaid work. The total handed out in fines is GB pound 427,400, and the total costs ordered is GB pound 266,339, only a small proportion of which went to my company. The majority went to the fire services for work carried out in case preparation. This, of course, works out to an average fine of approximately GB pound 4,274 per case and average costs of GB pound 2,663.

What has to be remembered here is that individuals can be fined only according to their means. Companies are usually fined in proportion to their profits. On that basis, the data supports the view that the majority of prosecutions have been brought against small and midsized businesses or landlords.

Is this what was envisaged when the Order was drafted?