The owner of a Chinese restaurant has pleaded guilty to 16 offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Fire protection officers visited Tang Chinese Restaurant in Napier Street, Cambridge with environmental health officials from Cambridge City Council in 2011, following an inspection by the UK Border Agency which raised concerns about fire safety.
The loft space of the building had been converted into living accommodation with inadequate means of escape and no fire alarm system or emergency lighting installed. The conversion of the loft placed occupants at risk of death or serious injury in the event of a fire, so a prohibition notice was served on the premises, meaning parts of the building could not be used until improvements were made.
Xueling Teng pleaded guilty to all 16 breaches and on 26 April the district judge at Peterborough Magistrates Court said that due to the serious nature of the offences, the fine would normally be in the region of tens of thousands of pounds. However, due to the nature of Mr Teng’s finances this had to be limited to £2,000, for the breaches of the prohibition notice, plus £1,000 costs.
Steve Cotton, head of fire protection for Cambridge Fire and Rescue Service said:
“These breaches were putting lives at risk. This prosecution should serve as a message to other business owners that the Fire Safety Order cannot be ignored – it is there to save lives.
“We are currently working with takeaways and restaurants, in particular Chinese, to improve fire safety through education rather than prosecution. We always prefer to work with business owners to help them improve their fire safety, however, where business owners fail to comply with prohibition notices we are prepared to consider prosecution to ensure that the lives of people using the building are protected.”
It’s sad that he won’t be able to run his business from jail but the public’s safety is too important. I think it’s great to know that there are regulations regarding fire safety. I wouldn’t want to eat in a place that is a constant fire hazard. http://www.zaricode.com/