A hotel owner who put his guests' lives at risk by breaching fire and safety rules has been fined £7,500.

Sunil Koomkhwa, who runs the Brighton Beach Hotel, was also ordered to pay £6,450 legal costs.

Brighton Magistrates Court heard fire officers inspected the 27-bedroom hotel in Marine Parade, on Brighton seafront, in June last year after a guest complained a fire door was locked.

When they arrived they found a catalogue of serious breaches of the hotel's fire certificate which could have put guests at risk if a blaze had broken out in the six-floor building.

Fire officers feared guests could have been trapped by the rapid spread of fire and smoke because of the lack of safety precautions.

The fire escape ladder on the third floor was heavily corroded and could potentially have given way if guests had used it to flee a fire and caused them to fall to the ground below.

A fire escape from the basement dining room was blocked by a fridge and the escape route from another part of the building was also impassable.

Several fire extinguishers were not full.

Fire doors were held open with a fire extinguisher and selfclosing devices on several fire doors were broken.

The officers informed the hotel the defects needed immediate action and the manager agreed to stop allowing the top floor to be used.

When the officers returned the following day for a more detailed inspection, they discovered further breaches of the regulations.

During a visit which lasted for nearly four hours they found an escape route was blocked by a chair, 23 fire doors would not close properly and three self-closing doors were held open with a fire extinguisher, a wedge and a piece of string.

Outside, a set of wooden stairs and a walkway were uneven and slippery because of a build-up of algae.

Bolts and hinges were rusted on a fire exit door in the basement making it difficult to open without force, which could have delayed people escaping from a blaze.

Len Batten, prosecuting for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said the breaches showed a clear lack of routine maintenance and inspection.

Koomkhwa, who has owned the hotel for five years, admitted ten breaches of fire safety regulations under the Fire Precautions Act.

Richard Marsh, defending, said there had been a major review of fire safety at the hotel since last year's inspection and improvements had been introduced.

He said fire officers had returned to the hotel and all matters were now considered in good order.

He said: "Mr Koomkhwa accepts maintenance has to be carried out on a more regular basis.

"He accepts his culpability and accepts the whole premises should have been more properly managed."

Mr Marsh said the hotel was currently not making any profit.

After the hearing Divisional Officer Peter Cox welcomed the sentence by the court.

He said the lack of maintenance of the fire safety measures would have placed guests of the hotel at serious risk if a fire had broken out with the likelihood that staff and guests could have been trapped by the fire and unable to escape.

He added: "The conditions in the hotel at the time fell well below the acceptable standard and placed people staying at the hotel at serious risk from fire.

"Had there been a fire in the hotel with the conditions we found, there was an inevitability people would have been trapped and at risk of injury or death.

"I am pleased the court has taken this case seriously and imposed a level of fine which will send a message to other people in the hotel business that fire safety must be taken seriously."

Thursday, February 16, 2006