The owner of an Abingdon hotel has been fined for serious breaches of fire safety legislation that put the lives of guests in danger.

Roknor House, based in Bath Street, Abingdon housed a takeaway business on the ground floor and a hotel on the first and second floors.

Fire safety inspectors from Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service visited the premises in March 2021 following a tip off.

READ MORE: Councillor slams road scheme after design changes

During the visit, several serious fire safety issues were identified. These included the fire alarm and emergency lighting systems not working, lack of adequate fire-resistant structure between the ground floor takeaway and the sleeping accommodation above and no fire risk assessment in place.

The premises were considered so dangerous that inspectors issued an immediate prohibition notice preventing sleeping in the property until fire safety measures were improved.

Mr Chuhar Singh of White Way, Kidlington pleaded guilty to six breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at a hearing on August 25.

He returned to Oxford Magistrates Court today (Friday, October 20) for sentencing, where he was fined £20,000 and was also ordered to pay over £3,000 in costs.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service provides fire safety advice to businessperson and employees.

Email: fire.service@oxfordshire.gov.uk Fire and rescue crews work every day to save and improve the lives of people across the county. For more information, visit: 365alive.co.uk

 

Read more from this author

This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1